Four Britons were being held on the Costa del Sol today accused of the shooting of a Liverpool man last month.Beachfront bar security boss Marvin Herbert was gunned down on September 24 at Puerto Banus, the millionaires’ yacht marina on the edge of Marbella.The 33-year-old was shot five times in the eye, the groin, pelvis, right leg and right arm.He was attacked in broad daylight by a lone gunman in front of dozens of witnesses.Herbert remains in hospital after a series of operations.
Police immediately said they believed the attack was a “settling of scores” related to drug trafficking.Puerto Banus and nearby Nueva Andalucia is a favourite hang-out for British and other international “costa crooks”.Herbert is said to have spent several hours drinking coffee alone on the terrace of Solly’s Diner in Puerto Banus before the shooting.At the time sources suggested the attack could have been revenge for the shooting of another Liverpool man in Marbella.Several other tit-for-tat shootings have taken place in the resorts in recent months.Numerous city gangsters are said to be in Spain, including some with links to murders such as that of Colin Smith, Curtis Warren’s former right-hand man shot dead in Speke last November

Marbella, Spain - Organized crime is increasing on Spain's touristic southern coast, the Costa del Sol, where more than 700 international criminal rings operate, the far-left party Izquierda Unida (IU) said in a report released Friday. The number of criminal organizations present in Malaga province grew by almost 10 per cent in 2007. More than 50 abductions and settlements of accounts occurred in 2006 on the Costa del Sol, where police dismantled over 130 criminal rings, detaining more than 1,200 people, over three years. The report stressed the link between organized crime and political corruption on the Costa del Sol. More than 170 people including mayors, officials and entrepreneurs have been detained in connection with scandals linked especially with the construction sector in the region in the recent years.