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ISSUE NO. 1739
1 - 7 November 2018
Newspaper in Spain 2017 & 2018
COSTA DEL SOL
YOUR PAPER, YOUR VOICE, YOUR OPINION
CREDIT: ASP CNP, via Twitter
Gunned down by Joe Gerrard POLICE were tracing two suspects yesterday (Wednesday) after a Dutch man was shot dead while eating at a well-known restaurant in Torremolinos on Saturday. Officers said one of the suspects shot Hamza Ziana in the head and abdomen while he was eating. The shooter fled with an accomplice in a white van while Ziana died hours after being taken to Malaga Regional Hospital, according to emergency services. Police said Ziani, 33, originally from Utrecht in the Netherlands, was also the man who had been charged in connection with explosives found on a Marbella construction site in September. Officers raided Ziana’s house after he was arrested and found high-end cars, cash, a machine gun, three pistols and ammunition which they said belonged to his gang. Officials suspect the killing was a settling of scores in disputes between rival drugs gangs that have raged on the Costa del
SHOT DEAD: Ziana was killed last Saturday. Sol for several months. Ziana is reportedly known in the Netherlands for allegedly being a member of a Utrecht-based gang involved in a battle to control a lucrative cocaine trade.
Crime call
TRADE UNIONS representing Costa del Sol police officers have called for reinforcements and more resources to tackle a wave of violent crime. The unions, which represent Judicial and National Police officers, claimed current staff and equipment levels could not tackle the shootings, stabbings and bomb threats seen in the region this year. The call comes as the Spanish government’s representative in Malaga Province said authorities had no plans to enact special measures for crime. The Police Justice Union (JUPOL) union said forces in the Costa del Sol had been short of staff for several years. “It is getting impossible to cover the gaps
He is said to be a rival of Ridouan Taghi, who is wanted by Dutch police in connection with a drugs trafficking operation worth hundreds of millions of euros. Spanish police investigating
left by retiring officers. Before the shortage crisis about 2,000 officers were joining us from the Avila training school every year and although we are still getting new recruits we are far from those figures,” a spokesperson for the union said. A Unified Police Union (SUP) official said they had warned authorities about reinforcements that would be needed to tackle organised crime in 2004. “In addition to resources, it is necessary to change the model of policing,” the official added. Maria Gamez, the Spanish government’s representative in Malaga Province, said police officers were working with “enormous efficiency” with the resources they already had. “The means are adjusted to the problems we have in the province,” Gamez said.
Ziana’s death believe the rivalry between different drugs gangs has spilled onto the Costa del Sol, claiming the life of the 33-yearold and several others this year. Officers are probing the burning of a car in Puerto Banus last August for possible links to Ziana’s death, with the four people inside said to have been Dutch nationals. That investigation and the one into the Torremolinos shooting continue.
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