127-kilo cocaine haul with a street value of almost €500,000 was found aboard the Spanish naval training ship Juan Sebastian Elcano docked in Cadiz.  The discovery was made by the Civil Guard who seized and searched the vessel when it returned to Spain following a six-month global voyage. The drugs are thought to have been loaded in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, where the boat stopped in mid-April. In early May more than 20 kilos of cocaine loaded on ship was sold while it was docked in New York, with the Spanish authorities then tipped off by the US department of Homeland Security Investigations.  It took until last month when the ship moored off of the northwest Spanish city Pontevedra to detain three suspected sailors – two Spaniards and an Ecuadorian – for drug trafficking. It is  unknown whether the three  had accomplices, though US authorities report the men were paid €3,800 for every kilo they trafficked.

Local Police in Malaga have arrested two employees at a city brothel on suspicion of taking €3,600 from a client after spiking his drinks. The victim, a 64-year-old Swiss man, has claimed that he was plied with alcohol or narcotics which left him confused and oblivious to the fact that large amounts of money were being taken from his credit cards. Once he discovered the unusual activity in his bank account, the victim presented himself at a police station to report the incident.

The police took the club owner and one of his employees, who authorised the transactions, into custody, where they were later charged with fraud. A total of €3,647 was taken from two credit cards belonging to the Swiss citizen. This is not the first case of this kind to have been reported recently. Last month, the managers of two brothels and a café in Valencia were accused of defrauding €95,000 from clients using the same methods of drink spiking. The majority of those affected by this type of crime are tourists who do not generally notice that the money has been taken until they have returned to their home countries, making the police’s job of registering and tracking the offences all the more difficult. The authorities are currently attempting to identify more victims in an effort to clamp down on drink spiking during these popular tourist months.

 criminal Gary Hutch was the intended target of an assassination attempt in Spain which left an innocent boxer with serious injuries. Boxing coach and respected Sky Sports pundit Jamie Moore was attacked in the Spanish resort of Marbella outside a villa owned by Daniel Kinahan, son of crime boss Christy Kinahan on Saturday night. But gardai have received intelligence that the nephew of former criminal mastermind Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch was attending a party in Kinahan's house and he was the intended target of the shooting. Moore was shot at five times and hit twice - in the leg and the foot. Hutch previously survived after his best pal Barry Doyle was shot dead allegedly by the Russian mafia in February 2008, as part of a feud among traffickers.

Former Manchester boxer Moore had been training Matthew Macklin (32) all summer at Macklin's MGM gym in the Puerto Banus area ahead of a fight at Dublin's National Stadium on August 30. But yesterday it was announced that the fight has now been called off. Macklin, who has no involvement in crime, is the boxer who the feared Christy Kinahan's international crime syndicate supports. Senior members of the mob are regularly seen ringside at his fights. Yesterday in a statement, Macklin said: "I am disappointed to have to postpone my fight but in the light of the circumstances and the disruption to my preparation it is the right thing to do. "Every fight at this stage in my career is of huge importance and being 100pc on the night is vital." Macklin has been photographed with Gary Hutch in the past and sources say that gardai want to question Hutch about a number of serious crimes. Hutch was sitting beside hitman pal Barry Doyle when he was shot dead in 2008.

Doyle was gunned down as he tried to escape in a BMW X5 SUV which had come under fire on the outskirts of Estepona, about 10 miles from Marbella. Sources say that foreign gangs based in Spain have decided that Gary Hutch is a target because of his involvement in the Kianahan mob but detectives in the secretive Crime and Security section at garda headquarters have not yet fully established if this is the case. Hutch is well-known to gardai, having served time for being a getaway driver in a jewellery heist and is a close pal of notorious criminal 'Fat' Freddie Thompson. Before he left for Spain, Hutch was involved in a number of feuds in Dublin's north inner city and has been a target for gardai for years. Meanwhile well respected former boxing champ Jamie Moore used his Twitter account to reveal he was recovering from the gun attack.

In an INTERPOL-supported operation in Spain targeting the trafficking of stolen vehicles, nearly 20 vehicles were recovered and some 15 individuals arrested. Led by the Spanish National Police, Operation Paso del Estrecho (which means ‘crossing the straits’), was conducted from 28 July to 1 August at the port of Algeciras in southern Spain, a known route used by organised criminal networks to smuggle cars stolen from throughout Europe into North Africa.

With the assistance of INTERPOL’s Stolen Motor Vehicles (SMV) unit, police monitored car ferries leaving the port en route to Morocco, with some 5,000 vehicles screened against INTERPOL’s SMV database. INTERPOL coordinated the deployment of 28 experts from seven countries to support the operation. The experts are members of the INTERPOL Stolen Motor Vehicles (SMV) Task Force, comprising police and private investigators who support member countries with operations targeting the theft and trafficking of motor vehicles. The INTERPOL SMV database contains more than 7 million records submitted by 128 member countries. In 2013, countries searched the database more than 125 million times, resulting in 117,000 positive hits. “Operation Paso del Estrecho was very important because it allowed us not only to detect and recover stolen vehicles from Spain and other European countries, but also to obtain crucial information that will allow us to continue our investigations into the organized crime groups dedicated to illegal vehicle trafficking,” said Ángel Arroyo Morales, Head of the vehicle crime investigation unit of the Spanish National Police Central Squad of Organized Crime. “There is no doubt that with strong cooperation between INTERPOL and police across Europe and beyond, we will continue to recover even more stolen vehicles before they can be used for criminal purposes,” he concluded. In addition, 15 people were arrested during the operation, including one Ukrainian and two Spanish nationals arrested in connection with a major investigation of the Central Squad of Organized Crime of the Spanish National Police.

They are suspected of being the masterminds behind a vast trafficking ring transporting stolen luxury cars between Spain and Ukraine, via Poland and Moldova. The stolen vehicles seized came from various European countries including Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden, demonstrating the transnational character of this crime. “The trafficking of stolen vehicles is a crime that knows no borders. The only way to effectively combat the organized criminal networks behind this crime is therefore through coordinated joint actions, as evidenced by this successful operation,” said INTERPOL’s Director of Specialized Crime and Analysis, Glyn Lewis. Operation Paso del Estrecho is an annual initiative conducted by Spanish police in Algeciras – a major gateway between Europe and Africa which sees approximately 4.8 million people and 1.3 million vehicles pass through each year – to prevent stolen vehicles from leaving the country and to identify and disrupt the criminal groups responsible for the illicit trafficking. Highlighting the links between organized crime and the trafficking of stolen motor vehicles – which are often used in the commission of other serious crimes – is a key part of INTERPOL’s global Turn Back Crime campaign. The campaign aims to raise awareness of these hidden links, and of the very real effect these crimes can have on people’s daily lives.

Former European boxing champion Jamie Moore is under armed police guard in a Spanish hospital after he was shot in the legs in Marbella at the weekend. 

Moore is currently based in Spain with his wife and two children where he is training Irish boxer Matthew Macklin at the MGM gym in Puerto Banus ahead of his upcoming fight in the National Stadium on August 30. Moore was shot in both legs and the foot when the gunman targeted him after he left a party on Saturday night but his injuries are not believed to be life-threatening. “Just to let everyone know Jamie Moore is still in hospital but he should be ok,” Macklin tweeted last night. “He was shot in his legs but the doctors have said there shouldn’t be any serious or permanent damage done.”

The coach and well-respected Sky Sports pundit who has no involvement in crime agreed to become Macklin’s coach last year, but gardai sources have indicated that “special surveillance plans” are in place for the upcoming fight. The villa where Moore was shot is owned by boxing manager Daniel Kinahan, a key member of the Christy Kinahan crime syndicate which operates a sizeable crime operation on Spain’s infamous Costa del Crime. Nicknamed the ‘Tipperary Tornado’, Birmingham-born Macklin has no involvement in crime but has been photographed in the company of major gangsters Gary Hutch and Daniekl Kinahan at major events.

Fugitive conman, drug dealer and money launderer Martin Evans has been arrested by armed police in South Africa after three years on the run.

Evans, 52, from Swansea - who was jailed for 21 years in 2006 for conspiracy to supply cocaine and fraudulent trading - was arrested in Johannesburg on Saturday.

His scams included swindling 87 investors out of £900,000 in an ostrich farm fraud in south Wales.

He will appear in court on Monday.

A spokesman for the National Crime Agency (NCA) said Evans was sought as part of Operation Zygos, which was set up to track Britain's 12 most wanted people.

He said: "We knew he had moved to South Africa. We were tracking him down."

Evans disappeared in August 2011 after failing to return from a weekend release from prison in Wiltshire.

He was arrested on Saturday night after an operation involving the NCA and Interpol, and intelligence-led surveillance operations were handled by South African Police.

Hank Cole, the NCA's head of international operations, said: "The exceptional level of collaboration and intelligence sharing with the South African Police Service led to the capture of Evans.

"This arrest shows the NCA and its partners will pursue fugitives wherever they are in the world.

"They can run but they can't hide. We have the capacity to track them down and bring them to justice."

Evans had been known to use the aliases Martin Roydon Evans, Martin Wayne Evans, Anthony Hall and Paul Kelly.

It is not the first time Evans has been on the run.

Before he was jailed in 2006, he had been hiding in Holland and Spain, where he masterminded a drugs and money laundering operation, shipping at least £3m of ecstasy and cocaine into Britain.

Evans began his criminal career in the mid 1990s after his double-glazing firm in Port Talbot failed.

He set up an ostrich-breeding business, promising profits of 70% a year, and targeting newly-retired people for investment by advertising in specialist retirement magazines.

On the day his trial was due to start in Swansea in March 2000, Evans jumped bail and sent a fax to the court saying he would not be attending.

Criminal earnings

He went on the run as the authorities searched for his assets in Jersey and the Bahamas.

Just when police thought they had finally loosened the Mafia's historical stranglehold over Sicily, a new generation of brash mobsters is reclaiming the streets of Palermo - and bragging about it on Facebook. After years when Cosa Nostra luminaries communicated only by hand written notes in code, their youthful successors are making increasingly unabashed online boasts about their wealth, power and contempt for the magistrates hunting them down. One Palermo mobster, Domenico Palazzotto, 28, who created a Facebook page under a false name, posted photos of himself cruising on motorboats, sitting down to sumptuous lobster and champagne dinners and riding in a limousine. The rising boss, who called the shots in the Arenella neighbourhood of Palermo, where he allegedly helped run extortion rackets, listed his liking for Neapolitan music and the US singer Kenny Loggins and name-checked an Italian TV series about the Mafia. Amid crude insults apparently aimed at the police, Mr Palazzotto also swapped messages with an aspiring mobster who asked to be enrolled in his clan

100 people plus who evacuated their homes as a fire swept across Mijas Costa on the Costa del Sol started to return in the early hours as the blaze was finally brought under control.

The bush fire that started in the El Chaparral district of Mijas Costa was fought by 12 aircraft and firefighters from towns all along the Costa del Sol. The blaze, first spotted around 7.30pm yesterday (Friday) rapidly spread, fanned by strong winds. Mijas council opened the La Cala sports centre as an emergency shelter for those fleeing the flames. By 8pm the fire around the original hotspot at El Chaparral was under control, but it was spreading quickly from a new hotspot towards the Cerrado de Aguila golf course and urbanisation. It had spread past the lush fairways of El Chaparral golf which may have helped protect the homes on the nearby urbanisation. A firebreak was bulldozed near a secondary school – the flames had come to within 100m of it and were perilously close to a Eucalyptus wood just over the road from the CEIP El Chaparral. INFOCA (forest fire control service) said there were three hotspots, the main one being at El Chaparral, another at nearby La Roza and the third near the hipodromo horse racing track.

The integrated fire plan was put into action to fight the fire, with police and civil protection volunteers blocking off roads while Mijas council water tankers accompanied fireengines from Mijas, Benalmadena, Torremolinos, Fuengirola Manilva and Marbella as they followed narrow urbanisation roads to tackle hotspots and protect property. Firefighters worked through the night to put the fire out. Twenty five INFOCA firefighters were remaining on the scene today to dampen down and control any fresh outbreaks.

The Guardia Civil and National Police dismantled 497 criminal organisations in 2013 and detained 6,292 people for drug and human trafficking, said Security Secretary Francisco Martinez last Thursday talking to the media. Police operations to crackdown on organised crime in Spain had a 97 per cent success rate, he added. As much as 83 per cent of all groups dismantled had been operating for less than three years, while seven out of every 10 criminal organisations were made up of nationals from more than two different countries. Most criminal organisations were based in Barcelona and Madrid, followed by Cadiz, Malaga, Alicante, Valencia, Sevilla and Murcia. The large majority of them traffic in cocaine (31 per cent) and 21 per cent traffics in hashish, said Martinez. Following the nationwide operations launched last year to crackdown on organised crime, Spanish police seized almost 20 tons of cocaine, 146,708 kilograms of hashish, 103 kilograms of heroin, more than 10,000 ecstasy pills, 2,102 cars, 119 boats, six aircraft, 558 guns, 630 knives, 909 computers, 4,498 mobile phones and €30 million. Data show arrests for human trafficking also increased last year, with as many as 753 people detained or 33 per cent more than in 2012, said Martinez. A total of 1,180 victims - most of them Romanian, Chinese and Spanish nationals - were freed from the clutches of these criminal organisations, he added.

holiday jet passenger has been charged with endangering a flight after allegedly cracking a window with a single punch. The pilot of Thomson Airways flight Tom145 radioed a message to police at Manchester Airport after the window cracked as the jet travelled 35,000ft over Ireland. Officers went to the gate and arrested Nicholas Whittaker, 43, from Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, before he disembarked.

The drama happened at about 5.30am as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner was coming to the end of its flight from Sanford Airport in Florida on May 25. It is understood it was approaching the coast of Ireland when the incident happened. Nobody was injured. The aircraft was packed with families returning to Manchester from holidays in Florida, with many having enjoyed trips to Disney World in Orlando. Whittaker, of Bentinck Street in Ashton, was charged with recklessly or negligently acting in a manner likely to endanger an aircraft or anyone on board, in accordance with Regulation 137 of the Air Navigation Order 2009.

He is due to appear before Trafford Magistrates’ Court on August 11. Aviation experts say passengers are only in jeopardy if both the inner and outer pane of an aircraft window are breached. It is understood only the inner pane was cracked. One said: “To break the inner pane is difficult and to break the outer pane is almost impossible. “If it did happen, the cabin will decompress and essentially everything will be sucked out of the aircraft.” A spokeswoman for Thomson Airways declined to comment on the matter in detail because of the criminal charges, but added: “We do have a zero-tolerance approach on all our aircraft. “Passenger safety is our paramount priority.” A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said: “At about 5.30am on May 25, 2014, police at the airport were informed by a member of the crew that a passenger on an inbound flight from Florida had struck an aircraft window, causing it to crack. “On arrival, a 43-year-old man was arrested on the aircraft.”

The underworld boss feared he would be prosecuted for the crimes after a high-profile police raid on his Costa del Sol home in May 2010,

But a judge investigating the Irishman and a gang of alleged accomplices including his two sons has decided to drop the allegations.

Kinahan, who was hauled back to a court in Estepona yesterday for further questioning, is now being probed only on suspicion of money laundering and membership of a criminal gang.

 

 

 

The dramatic decision, which a state prosecutor decided not to appeal against, will be seen as a major blow for the Spanish police and politicians.

Former Home Secretary Alfredo Rubalcaba branded the Kinahans a “mafia family” when Christy and sons Christopher and Daniel were arrested during a series of dawn raids on the Costa del Sol.

Nearly a dozen suspects were arrested in the UK and Ireland as part of the same Europol-coordinated police operation.

Rubalcaba, who has just been replaced as leader of Spain’s main opposition party, even linked the alleged gang ringleaders to a string of murders when he reacted to news of the arrests during a visit to Poland.

He said at the time: “This was an operation against an important, well-known mafia of organised crime, which has operated in different countries and which is being linked to various murders and with a number of crimes from drug trafficking to people trafficking.

“It is a mafia family relatively well-known in the United Kingdom, a little less known in Spain, but they are established on the Costa del Sol.”

Investigating judge Maria Carmen Gutierrez Henares is understood to have binned her drugs and weapons trafficking probe after finding no evidence linking Kinahan and his alleged accomplices to the crimes.

Christy and his sons and alleged right-hand man John Cunningham will remain on bail along with the other suspects while the secret court probe continues into the money laundering and criminal gang membership allegations.

 

 

 

Sources close to the long-running case predicted last night it could take at least two more years to reach trial - and the number of defendants in the dock would be a fraction of those originally arrested.

One insider said: “All the suspects including Christy Kinahan have been called back to court over the last three weeks to give evidence behind closed doors.

“Most said they had nothing to add to earlier statements.

“Christy KInahan attended court yesterday/on Wednesday but managed to get in and out of the building without anyone cottoning on to the fact it was him.

“He’s not surprised the drugs and weapons allegations against him have been dropped but he’s obviously very relieved.

“The judge took her decision around the same time she called the first of the suspects in for further questioning.

“Their defence lawyers are confident the money laundering charges are not going to prosper either.”

Another well-placed source added: “The suspects weren’t asked a single question about drugs or weapons.

“Most declined to add anything to their original statements.”

More than 20 people including the Kinahans were arrested on the Costa del Sol more than four years ago as part of Operation Shovel.

Christy, arrested at his luxury apartment in a private development near Estepona, spent six months on remand in jail before being bailed.

Armed officers sealed off a residential street after his detention before marching him into court.

Police said at the time the gang he is said to have led owned property worth 500 million euros in Brazil and 160 million euros in Spain.

The suspects had a fleet of expensive cars seized and bank accounts frozen

Christy Kinahan feared he would be prosecuted for the crimes after a high-profile police raid on his Costa del Sol home in May 2010. But a judge investigating the Irishman and a gang of alleged accomplices, including his two sons, has decided to drop the allegations. Kinahan, who was hauled back to a court in Estepona on Wednesday for further questioning, is now being probed only on suspicion of money laundering and membership of a criminal gang.

The dramatic decision, which a state prosecutor decided not to appeal against, will be seen as a major blow for the Spanish police and politicians. Kinahan and sons Christopher and Daniel were arrested during a series of dawn raids on the Costa del Sol, while nearly a dozen suspects were arrested in Ireland and the UK as part of the same Europol operation. Investigating judge Maria Carmen Gutierrez Henares is understood to have binned her drugs and weapons trafficking probe after finding no evidence linking Kinahan and his alleged accomplices to the crimes. Christy, his sons, and alleged right-hand man John Cunningham, will remain on bail along with the other suspects while the court probe continues into money laundering and criminal gang membership allegations. Sources close to the long-running case predicted last night it could take at least two more years to reach trial – and the number of defendants in the dock would be a fraction of those originally arrested.

One insider said: "All the suspects, including Christy, have been called back to court over the last three weeks to give evidence behind closed doors. "Most said they had nothing to add to earlier statements. "Christy attended court on Wednesday but managed to get in and out of the building without anyone cottoning on to the fact it was him. "He's not surprised the drugs and weapons allegations against him have been dropped, but he's very relieved. "The judge took her decision around the same time she called the first of the suspects in for further questioning. "Their defence lawyers are confident the money laundering charges are not going to prosper either." Another well-placed source added: "

The suspects weren't asked a single question about drugs or weapons." More than 20 people including the Kinahans were arrested on the Costa del Sol more than four years ago as part of Operation Shovel. Christy Kinahan, arrested at his luxury apartment in a private development near Estepona, spent six months on remand in jail before being bailed. At the time police said Kinahan had property worth €500m in Brazil and €160m in Spain.

A nationwide raid on a criminal group recently netted the Spanish police an extensive booty: 52 cars and motorbikes, as well as two boats, and 6.5 tons of gold and silver. Rather than let the spoils go to waste, the Spanish interior minister and other top security officials lighted on a novel cost savings in these hard economic times.

Four of the cars, it turned out, were newly armored and better than the ones they had. So they decided to use them. Jorge Fernández Díaz, the interior minister, got special permission in April from a court in Valencia to use the armored cars for police purposes. The court is handling the investigation into the criminal group and overseeing its seized assets. Confirming a report published this week in the newspaper El Mundo, Mr. Fernández Díaz stressed the cost savings of the unconventional vehicle upgrade.

Four bulletproof cars used by the criminals are valued at about 400,000 euros, or nearly $540,000. “We are saving money for the public treasury, for citizens, and we are raising our means to fight these gangs with greater efficiency,” the minister told reporters. The secretary of state for security and the director general of the Spanish police are also using confiscated armored cars, which are far newer as well as lighter than their previous cars. In any case, officials said, the previous cars had been due for expensive maintenance and repair work. A 2011 cease-fire by ETA, the Basque separatist group, prompted significant cuts in government spending on armored vehicles and bodyguards to protect officials. The cease-fire also coincided with a financial crisis that put the spotlight on unjustified government spending in a time of austerity, which left many Spaniards struggling with tax increases and salary cuts. During a four-decade campaign of terrorism, ETA killed more than 800 people in bombings and assassinations. José María Aznar, a former Spanish prime minister, escaped with light injuries when his armored car was bombed in Madrid in 1995. At the time, he was the leader of the opposition Popular Party. But ETA, which issued a statement this month saying it had dismantled its military wing, has not killed anyone on Spanish soil since 2009. Spain’s government, however, says that the group must surrender unconditionally and turn over all its weapons. Defending the use of the confiscated armored cars, Mr. Fernández Díaz said it was not unusual for crime money to aid Spain’s public finances, or for the Spanish state to make use of “decommissioned” assets after criminal cases are closed.

Last year, for instance, money seized and accounts frozen as part of drug trafficking cases added €22.1 million, or nearly $30 million, to the Spanish treasury. Before getting the armored cars, the minister said, his security forces had already inherited some boats and aircraft from criminals, without providing a detailed listing. “This is not the first time, and hopefully not the last,” he said. What has become of the boats, he did not say.

General Hugo Carvajal was arrested in Aruba on Wednesday about 6 pm local time on arrival to the Caribbean island belonging to the Netherlands, which traveled on a false passport. Despite claiming immunity diplomatic , on his appointment as consul on the island by the government of Nicolas Maduro , border guards denied that status, because his appointment had not yet been accredited by the Dutch authorities .

These acted at the request of the United States , the Netherlands previously revealed the contents of an allegation that the Attorney for the Southern District of New York kept secret ("sealed indictment") against Hugo Carvajal. The general and was included in2008 in the black list of the U.S. Treasury, for "assistance" to the FARC , the Colombian guerrillas. He was accused of "protecting Venezuelan counternarcotics authorities drug shipments and providing weapons to the FARC."

Relations with governments and terrorists

Sources in Washington involved in collecting evidence against Carvajal, ensure that the general, called by many the alias of"Chicken" , is the most central figure in the plot of druglaunched by the own Hugo Chavez and whose activities have led out several generals, known as the "sign of the Suns" .

" Carvajal was responsible for collecting the drug FARC and controlled the entire distribution process to the United States and Europe , and also took care of the money laundering through the PDVSA oil 'say these sources, who believe their detention will "uncover large pot of money laundering conducted by PDVSA." The general came to Aruba precisely in a plane owned by a figurehead Rafael Ramirez , president of the oil. Besides the extraordinary point Carvajal can provide information on the relationship of Chavez's Venezuela with Hezbollah and Iran . "It's like Pablo Escobar and Vladimiro Montesinos together, a chief of intelligence to put drug lord , "they say.

Carvajal was head of the Military Intelligence Directorate (DIM) for much of the Chávez era , between 2004 and 2011 . then returned to be appointed to the post by Maduro in 2013, although he remained a short time.

The processing of extradition to the United States can take to resolve between diez and fifteen days . The extradition will be confronted by the Venezuelan government, which said in a statement that "categorically rejects the illegal and arbitrary detention" of Carvajal, whom he described as "diplomat".

Ulrich says in the interview with the mrror that he was using cocaine up to around ten years ago but, when reading about Gallagher's own experiences with the drug, decided he wanted to stop."I loved the social elements of cocaine. I loved the danger of it," he said. "Then, about 10 years ago, I read an interview with Noel Gallagher, in which he said, 'I just stopped doing cocaine'. I thought that was really cool. It felt so fresh, so honest, so pure - I love that side of him. I've never had an addictive personality, so I woke up one day and said, 'Enough'."In fact, Ulrich says he only began taking cocaine in order to be able to drink more with his bandmates. "In the early days, I'd always get drunk way faster than the other guys," said Ulrich. "I realised that if there was a little bit of cocaine involved I could stay up longer, instead of ending up face down in the corner, passed out three hours before the party ended."

Spanish police have arrested a Colombian drug boss dubbed ‘The Mouse’, the alleged leader of a major cocaine smuggling gang accused of 400 killings, officials said on Saturday. Officers arrested the 40-year-old, whose real name is reportedly Hernan Alonso Villa, in the eastern seaside city of Alicante on Friday, according to a police statement. He is considered ‘the top leader of the military wing of the Oficina de Envigado, a Colombian criminal organisation accused of 400 killings as well as drug-trafficking, extorsion and forced displacements of Colombian citizens’, it said. ‘He is one of the criminals most wanted by the Colombian authorities. He had more than 200 people under his command and was responsible for exporting cocaine to Spain, the United States and Holland,’ the statement said. Spanish officers arrested him under a Colombian extradition warrant for charges including alleged homicide and arms offences. He was carrying 40,000 euros ($54,000) in cash when he was caught, the statement said. Authorities say the ‘Oficina’ gang dates back to the 1980s when it carried out killings for the now-dismantled Medellin Cartel. Spain is one of the main entry points for illegal narcotics into Europe and Colombia is one of the world’s biggest sources of cocaine. Colombia produced 290 tonnes of cocaine in 2013, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Spanish police have arrested one of Colombia's most-wanted criminals, a 40-year-old man nicknamed the Rat who is one of leaders of a ruthless drug cartel linked to 400 murders and the shipment of largest amounts of cocaine to Europe and the United States. Hernan Alonso Villa was arrested Friday while driving on a highway on the outskirts of the southeastern Mediterranean port city of Alicante, police said in a statement. He was found carrying 40,000 euros in cash, police said. Police in Colombia said Alonso Villa is leader of the military wing of the so-called Envigado Office, named for the district in Medellin where one of the country's largest and most-violent drug trafficking organizations arose in the 1990s following the dismemberment of Pablo Escobar's Medellin cartel. The criminal organization is linked to more than 400 murders, police said. Saturday's statement says Alonso Villa had 200 people under his command and was responsible for exporting cocaine to Spain, United States and the Netherlands.

Your weed-induced paranoia is a real thing.

A new study has found that weed can make actually you paranoid, confirming the findings of investigations dating back to the 1930s, as well as anyone who has ever smoked weed and then ridden the subway. However, researchers found that it's not the weed that directly causes panic, but rather that it makes you more vulnerable to the onset of panic. The study: Oxford University researchers administered intravenous injections to 121 participants who had all recently experienced paranoia. Two thirds received a dose of THC and the remaining third received a placebo.

The participants were then placed in a real-life situation — the hospital cafeteria — and a calm situation depicted in a virtual reality headset. Half of the real THC group felt elevated levels of anxiety and panic in both settings. In the placebo group, only a third felt such effects. Being high makes people more prone to becoming paranoid, but as the lead researcher puts it, "More importantly, it shines a light on the way our mind encourages paranoia. Paranoia is likely to occur when we are worried, think negatively about ourselves, and experience unsettling changes in our perceptions." When one is high, the changes in perception can lead to a state of disorientation, opening the way to panic and paranoid thoughts. If one feels self-conscious or anxious prior to getting high, then the high will make paranoia more likely to occur.

Clarifying the lore. It's common knowledge that the high from cannabis can generate some level of paranoia in some people, and consuming too much at once can lead to a panic episode. This study demonstrates that those feelings are a direct reaction to the unexpected nature of altered perception, and that a person manifests their own paranoia due to a state of disorientation. The report says that, in a normal state, "Many people have a few paranoid ideas, and a few people have many." Based on your existing vulnerability to paranoia, being high can exacerbate your tendency to feeling paranoid. A number of studies on cannabis over the past few decades cite paranoia as a side effect, including studies of its psychiatric effects, its dangers, and its medical uses, but none of them have discovered how much our own state of mind plays a part. Now we can confirm that if you smoke weed and start getting paranoid, it may well be your own state of mind.

Police in Madrid have arrested William Thomas Robert Paterson, wanted over the murder of a gangland enforcer in a car park in Scotland.

Paterson, nicknamed Buff and Billy, was wanted over the 2010 death of  Kevin 'Gerbil' Carroll in a supermarket car park in Glasgow. The 34-year-old fled to Spain after that crime where he remained in hiding until his arrest, Spain's El Diario newspaper reported on Thursday. Paterson appeared on a ten most wanted crime list released by  the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency and Crimestoppers as part of a campaign known as Operation Captura. This campaign targets criminals that UK authorities believe are on the run in Spain.

Mind & Body Treatment and Research Institute is sharing its remarkable new methods for addiction treatment in an upcoming conference, July 12th in San Diego. Those who can't attend the "Face Your Addiction and Save Your Life Conference" can still benefit from Dr. Keerthy Sunder's treatment expertise, through a conference recording that will be available online, as well as Dr. Sunder's new book, "Addictions: Face Your Addiction & Save Your Life." Those who are personally struggling with addiction and friends and family of addicts are invited to attend in person or online after the conference. The conference will take place from 11 AM – 1 PM, Saturday, July 12th in San Diego at the Porto Vista Hotel in the Costa del Sol Meeting Room. A luncheon for registrants will be held at 1 PM. To register, visit http://mbtrins.com/register-now/. The conference recording will be made available on the Mind & Body Treatment and Research Institute website. From years of helping addicts, Dr. Sunder has developed strategies for addicts and their families to beat addiction for good, defying the alarming relapse statistics. He looks forward to sharing these tools and techniques at the seminar. Not only will participants learn how an individual's genetics make them vulnerable to addiction, they'll learn about dual diagnosis and about addiction's ability to alter someone's brain.

LIVING IN A FASCIST STATE: Mentally ill people need to be helped, not hounded

Neglect of the mentally ill is bad enough, but now consider how the Department for Work and Pensions deliberately torments them. I just met a jobcentre manager. It had to be in secret, in a Midlands hotel, several train stops away from where she works. She told me how the sick are treated and what harsh targets she is under to push them off benefits. A high proportion on employment and support allowance have mental illnesses or learning difficulties. The department denies there are targets, but she showed me a printed sheet of what are called "spinning plates", red for missed, green for hit. They just missed their 50.5% target for "off flows", getting people off ESA. They have been told to "disrupt and upset" them – in other words, bullying. That's officially described, in Orwellian fashion, as "offering further support". As all ESA claimants approach the target deadline of 65 weeks on benefits – advisers are told to report them all to the fraud department for maximum pressure. In this manager's area 16% are "sanctioned" or cut off benefits.

Of course it's not written down anywhere, but it's in the development plans of individual advisers or "work coaches". Managers repeatedly question them on why more people haven't been sanctioned. Letters are sent to the vulnerable who don't legally have to come in, but in such ambiguous wording that they look like an order to attend. Tricks are played: those ending their contributory entitlement to a year on ESA need to fill in a form for income-based ESA. But jobcentres are forbidden to stock those forms. These ill people's benefits are suddenly stopped without explanation: if they call, they're told to collect a form from the jobcentre, which doesn't stock them either. If someone calls to query an appointment they are told they will be sanctioned if they don't turn up, whatever. She said: "The DWP's hope is they won't pursue the claim."

Good advisers genuinely try to help the mentally ill left marooned on sickness benefit for years. The manager spoke of a woman with acute agoraphobia who hadn't left home for 20 years: "With tiny steps, we were getting her out, helping her see how her life could be better – a long process." But here's another perversity: if someone passes the 65-week deadline, they are abandoned. All further help is a dead loss to "spinning plates" success rates. That woman was sent back to her life of isolation: she certainly wasn't referred for CBT. For all this bullying, the work programme finds few jobs for those on ESA.

Failing to treat the mentally ill is bad enough, but this is maltreatment. There has been much outrage about lack of kindness and care in hospitals. Neglect of mental patients is every bit as bad, but deliberate cruelty by the DWP defies any concern for the wellbeing for the most vulnerable, let alone "parity of esteem".