Eight arrested in Estepona drugs haul 10 June 2010
The traffickers used a new system to bring
the drugs across the Strait
National Police and tax
officials have broken up a drug trafficking network in Estepona which
used the unusual method of dragging the drugs in bails to the shore
underwater.
The drugs, which came from Morocco, were sunk and anchored under the
water at a depth of some 20 metres at pre-arranged coordinates.
Then the Spanish side of the organisation would go to the site which had
been marked with a buoy and then use a diver to bring the drugs to the
surface.
Jet skis were then used to bring the drugs to shore.
Police say that eight people have been arrested and 1,158 kilos of
hashish have been recovered, 700 kilos of which was still anchored out
to sea close to the Saladillo beach in Estepona.
Eight people have been arrested, but there is no detail as yet on their
nationalities.
Irish mafia boss hauled before court in Spain
GANGLAND boss Christy Kinahan was last night set to be hauled before a Spanish judge investigating his alleged international mafia empire.
Police
launched a massive security operation at a Costa del Sol
court as they prepared for the arrival of Kinahan, aged 53, and alleged
right-hand man John Cunningham, aged 58.
Heavily armed officers imposed a ring of steel around the building in Estepona
as judge Maria Carmen Gutierrez Henares grilled the 22 suspects arrested in
police raids.
They barricaded off the road in the seaside town as officers from the elite
Special Operations Security Group, dressed in black and armed with machine
guns, kept watch.
Kinahan, from Dublin
and dubbed the Dapper Don, is suspected of masterminding a global crime network
involved in drug trafficking, arms dealing and money-laundering.
He was arrested at his villa on the Costa del Sol at dawn on Tuesday, one of 32
people held in a series of raids in Spain, Ireland and Britain involving 750
police officers.
Judge Gutierrez Henares began questioning those under arrest at the Court of
Instruction number 3 in Estepona on Thursday evening.
Sitting until 11pm, she grilled eight detainees before naming them all formal
suspects in the investigation, a halfway stage towards formal charges that does
not exist in Irish law.
She released six of them on bail and remanded two others in custody on Thursday
night.
A statement released yesterday morning by Andalusia’s
higher court of justice said: "The court of the first instance and
instruction number 3 in Estepona took statements on Thursday from eight people
in relation to the operation against the Irish mafia.
"Six of them were released on bail with the obligation to appear on the
first and 15th day of each month. They are being formally investigated for
money-laundering, drug-trafficking and falsifying documents, along with other
alleged offences. The court extended the detention of the other two
people."
Yesterday morning, she began to question the remaining 14 people arrested.
All the court hearings took place behind closed doors with no access for the
press or public, and a secrecy order prevents officials from revealing what was
said in court.
Each suspect was grilled by the judge in the presence of their lawyer and, if
necessary, a court-appointed interpreter. The judge then decided whether to
release them without further action, release them on bail, or remand them into
custody while the probe continues.
Formal charges are usually only laid in Spain shortly before a trial, and
suspects for certain crimes can be held for up to four years without being
charged.
Sources at the Estepona court said the chief suspects would be last to appear
before the judge. The building has only two cells, capable of holding a total
of three suspects at a time, so they were being brought to court in groups of
three or fewer.
A lawyer acting for one suspect, who declined to give his name, said: "The
suspects were brought to court three by three because there are only two cells
in the building, one holding two people and the other holding one.
"The judge takes statements from them individually."
BUY (shipped from Spain) (select from alphabetical list)
B BUY (shipped from UK) 