14 - 20 Sept 2017
COSTA BLANCA SOUTH
YOUR PAPER, YOUR VOICE, YOUR OPINION Photo Credit: Guardia Civil
ISSUE NO. 1680
Unhappy hunting ground DECEASED and elderly residents are alleged to be victims of identity fraud for the creation of an illegal hunting reserve. Guardia Civil arrested four people in Crevillente on suspicion of falsifying documents, theft of civil status and coercion. The gang, who may be part of a criminal organisation, reportedly attempted to create a 353 hectare hunting area in the village of San Felipe Neri. One of the men arrested is president of the association El Rincon, an irrigation company, and police are probing if he dishonestly used data he had access to. The defendants are also alleged to have contacted several complainants, encouraging them to withdraw their complaints. The probe began when residents reported that their land had been included on a private hunting ground without their consent. One furious local told Spanish media that hunters were laying down bait for birds and rabbits on his plot.
THE GAME IS UP: As the gang’s chief is led away.
€1.6 million mafia fruit sting
Orange crush AN Italian mafia boss and five gang members have been held for allegedly stealing fruit and vegetables worth €2.5 million in Alicante Province. Officers of the Guardia Civil received a number of complaints from a fruit and vegetable grower in Cox who had been persuaded to sell 1.6 million kilos of produce to a group claiming to represent a large UK supermarket chain, but no payment was received. When the documents accompanying the shipments were investigated, investigators found a number of irregularities which revealed that rather than being sent to the UK, the con-
signments were shipped to France, Italy and Romania and sold on the black market. With the help of INTERPOL and the Romanian Police, the Guardia Civil was able to identify the transport company used to ship the bulk of the produce. Detectives were able to piece together the way in which the scam operated, with the producer being sent apparently credible orders before the fruit and vegetables were collected in lorries bearing fake number plates and false livery. These were driven to a warehouse in Real, Valencia Province, before the goods were loaded onto new vehicles
bearing legal number plates. Apart from the members of the gang, they also arrested two Italians, one of whom has been identified as the head of a Sicilian mafia group who had, according to the Guardia Civil previously been involved on a bombing attack on his own family.
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