ISSUE NO. 1669
29 June - 5 July 2017
COSTA DE ALMERÍA
YOUR PAPER, YOUR VOICE, YOUR OPINION
WWW.EUROWEEKLYNEWS.COM
Hot tot set free from car SEIZED: Almost one ton of hash dragged by underwater anchors.
Subaquatic smugglers held in raid
Sinking feeling By Matthew Elliot S pecia l i st p o l i c e d i v e rs s eized a l m o st 9 0 0 k g o f hashish in a dramatic underwater operation. The cons ignme n t h a d sn u c k in to Almeria’s waters from Morocco aboard five separate vessels.
Guardia Civil officers detected their approach using state-of-the-art sonar techn o lo g y. T h e b o a ts w ere dragging the hash in sealed packages below the surface in order to escape detection. Police boats stopped the vessels. Divers from the Special Underwater Activi-
ties Group (GEAS) then plunged into the waters just off the El Ejido coast. The y found the ha s h in separate containers held 25 metres below the surface. A t tha t de pth the y found 640kg. Above water level, stashed in hidden compartments across the boats they
Property Special
found another 250kg of the illegal drug. The ha ul is w orth millions of euros and undoubtedly among the biggest of the year so far. It also reveals new smuggling technique s us e d by c re a tive ga ngs trying to e lude e nhanced coast guard activity.
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A TODDLER almost died after being exposed to temperatures of up to 60 degrees while locked inside a car left out in the burning sun. The mother of the two-year-old girl is now facing criminal charges after abandoning her daughter for at least 90minutes as outside temperatures soared past 33 degrees. The girl was rescued by Local Police officers who fortunately passed by the parked car near Almeria’s train station and saw her crying for help. She was in a state of clear and extreme dehydration and panic, forcing one officer to smash the glass window and rush her to hospital. Meanwhile police waited by the car. Eventually the girl’s mother and grandmother returned. They took the mother into custody and have transferred provisional custody to the father. Aged 37 and of Romanian origin, the mother claimed she’d only been gone for 10 minutes. But her parking ticket told a different story, suggesting the girl had been left alone from 4pm until well after 5pm with the windows shut and her scorching hot seatbelt on. Medics revealed that the car’s internal temperature likely pushed 60 degrees, a life-threatening heat for even adult humans. Similar cases have seen parents jailed for endangering their children.