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ISSUE NO. 1738
25 - 31 October 2018
FIVE people have been arrested for holding a man hostage in Axarquia. The young people face charges of assault, robbery, criminal damage and kidnapping after taking a man by force and making him travel with them to Mezquitilla, Velez-Malaga and Algarrobo. Police began investigating on August 25 after a man reported being assaulted at the Mezquitilla fairground in Velez-Malaga by a gang who forced him to take them to where his car was parked. There they reportedly, ‘beat him and threatened him by forcing him to take drugs against his will to diminish his physical and mental capacity.’ The victim claimed the group then forced him to withdraw cash from three ATMs while one of the gang took his car to go to VelezMalaga. The vehicle is reported to have been extensively damaged as it was driven through the town’s narrow roads. The driver allegedly then picked up the group and its victim again before moving to Algarrobo where three people detained the man next to a health centre while another two attempted to break into his home. They are said to have mistaken his property, however, instead entering a neighbouring house where they disturbed its occupants as they took their television out of a window. Meanwhile the victim tried
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Kidnapped
ARRESTED: The gang attempted to break into the victim’s house in Algarrobo. to get away in his car but the gang reportedly caught him and allegedly hit him so hard he was forced to take refuge inside the health centre. Staff there managed to intervene, preventing the group from beating the man again. Members of the Guardia Civil from Torrox and Algarrobo worked with the Algarrobo Local Police and VelezMalaga National Police to
locate and arrest the men across Algarrobo, VelezMalaga and Malaga City. The gang are said to hold previous criminal records, and officers claim they had carried out other violent robberies, as well as forcing other victims to come with them to buy drugs. Police say others had been deterred from reporting these incidents out of ‘fear.’
Boy drowns A FIVE-YEAR-OLD boy has died after being pulled unconscious from a swimming pool while holidaying with his family in the Axarquia region. Emergency services were called out to the villa complex in Nerja where the boy was staying at around 6pm last Tuesday. He was holidaying with 12 family members,
who are all said to be British according to reports. Emergency services arrived at the resort, on Avenida Rodriguez Acosta, to find the boy unconscious. Paramedics tried to revive him but he was declared dead at the scene, Guardia Civil officers said.
Of the men arrested, one was found to be living in Spain illegally and has been handed over to the VelezMalaga National Police immigration department. Three others have also been remanded in custody.
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Serious fall A PAINTER has been injured after falling from a fivestorey building in El Morche. The 31-year-old man is reportedly in a serious condition at the Malaga Regional Hospital after falling around 15 metres from a residential building in the Atalaya del Sur urbanisation on Calle Carlos Moreno. Local Police and health workers were forced to call an air ambulance to transfer the man to hospital after his safety equipment reportedly failed as he suspended over the building as he worked on it. According to one publication, the painter was hanging off the building suspended by a safety harness. For causes which are now being investigated, the man fell, first hitting an aluminium structure before falling into an internal courtyard. Members of the Guardia Civil, Labour Inspectorate and Local Police are now investigating. The victim is said to originally be from Cordoba and specialised in painting and high-rise works.