MARBELLA CLUB

Detectives on the Costa del Sol have charged John White over an alleged scam to defraud dozens of people of their valuable antiques.They are probing whether White, 58, set up a sting which saw dozens of expatriates hand him rare coins and other items, worth an estimated one million euros.Greying White – described as “someone straight off the Antiques Roadshow” – allegedly hoodwinked up to 100 clients over a three-month period.But his game was rumbled in a clever heist after clients were informed by email that Mr White had “suddenly died of cancer” in the US.Far from convinced and fearing the loss of up to 100,000 euros of valuables, two of his victims posed as a potential new client to flush him out.In a clever sting, the pair met White at a Fuengirola cafe, before bundling him into a car insisting they went to get their property.But White still refused to be outdone and, despite his age, pulled a knife on his clients at the luxury 500,000 euro home he was renting in Marbella.
“I was stabbed several times after being kidnapped, tied up and thrown into the boot of a car.”After a scuffle, in which both parties were wounded, his clients, who are from South Africa, fled before police arrived to arrest White.Marbella police had already been investigating White over the auction fraud after a series of reports were filed.But in a cunning twist, White claimed to be the innocent party and insisted he had become the victim of a vicious attack, in which his clients kidnapped him and stole the items scheduled for auction.In a frantic late night phone call from Marbella police station he told an Olive Press reporter: “I was stabbed several times after being kidnapped, tied up and thrown into the boot of a car.“They pretended to be antique sellers at first, but then they bundled me into their car, took me to my home and stole 25,000 dollars and all the antiques.”This claim is completely denied by his clients, a pair of South African businessmen, living on the Costa del Sol.

While they were arrested the following day and accused of ‘illegal detention” and robbery, their lawyer insisted they were completely innocent.
Carlos Vee, of firm GA Lawyers, said: “They were simply trying to get their property back and worked out a clever sting to catch him out.“Where they went wrong was not to get the police involved in advance.”He continued: “It is a case of the conman getting conned. He is a very credible bookish sort of bloke, straight out of the Antiques Roadshow.“He took a lot of people in a plot reminiscent of a Tom Clancy novel. He had apparently done it a few times before and is a seasoned sociopath.”While police confirmed they were investigating a “fracas” outside his home, they also confirmed they were probing the suspected antiques fraud.Police started investigating after two reports were filed against White last week.
This week detectives scoured his three-storey townhouse, which he rented on the outskirts of the celebrated Spanish tourist resort.Cordoning off the house, they eventually emerged with a number of items, including an unidentifiable machine about a metre in length.The auctioneer, who had apparently been renting the home for six months, had arranged a series of ‘bogus’ auctions of rare and historic antiques, which never took place.Advertising the event in local newspapers and through posters, he was inundated with sellers – mostly elderly Britons – keen to cash in on their valuables.
However, after one high profile auction at Marbella’s prestigious Hotel el Fuerte was cancelled twice, his clients grew suspicious.After failing to get through to his phone number or address, they heard he had moved to America, and was “recovering from cancer”.

One concerned client Maria Weldon Weightman, 60, from Glasgow – whose valuables were estimated to be worth over 20,000 euros – has filed an official police report.

“I have been trying to call him for more than two weeks and I have heard nothing,” explained Weightman, who has lived in Estepona for a number of years.
“It is very strange, he guaranteed me that my items would be sold by the New Year.”
Another client Elizabeth Davies, from Birmingham, handed over a priceless Roman broach with three extremely rare Roman coins inside, plus numerous other items.
She said: “I took him at face value, I believed that he as he was older he would be more trustworthy.
“I just feel like such an idiot for having originally agreed to this.”
Our investigators also failed to get hold of White, who eventually sent a string of bizarre emails via a third party, claiming he was in the US recovering from cancer.
At first they claimed he was close to death, but later said he was making a recovery.
They also insisted the terms of the auction had been clearly explained.
The third party, who gave his name as David Harris, insisted that sellers would be paid 60 days after the auction and that clients were made aware of this.
In a spelling-mistake spewed email, he said: “It doesn’t matter what you say or do, we have tried to explain to a few clients here in Marbella but it seems to go in one ear and out of the other,” read the email..”We don’t just sit in an office doing nothing all day.”
However, clients have since refuted the claims, insisting that no sure assurances were ever made.Judy Rosevear, 60, from Cornwall, explained: They didn’t explain any of this to us, he actually never made it clear about how or when he would pay.
“The biggest problem is the very fact you cannot get hold of them.”
While police scoured his home neighbours alleged that he has not paid his rent for several months.A Marbella national police detective confirmed that White had been charged and bailed.He said: “We are still looking into this case but I would hesitate to add much more at this stage.”

The gang had reportedly smuggled cannabis from Morocco, cocaine from the Netherlands and heroin from the Balkans to Italy and worked closely with Apulia's Sacra Corona Unita mafia. and Moroccan-led drug smuggling ring, media reports said on Friday. Suspected gang members had also been arrested in Spain, France and Belgium.
Raids in northern and southern Italy had uncovered 700 kilograms of cannabis and large amounts of heroin and cocaine.The police had 57 arrest warrants, and at least 13 people were put behind bars.

Colombia's Prosecutor General's Office dismantled a drug-trafficking organization that had been smuggling cocaine to Europe, arresting two serving members of the army and five banana company employees, reported W Radio.According to police reports the organization had been hiding quantities of the illegal drug amongst banana exports to various European countries, a process which involved members of the armed forces.
Interception and arrest of the seven narco-traffickers by Colombian authorities took place in the municipalities of Apartado, Turbo, and Cartagena. Authorities have identified all the detained men.In January Lidl supermarket staff in Spain discovered millions of dollars worth of cocaine, thought to have been shipped from Colombia via Africa, hidden in boxes of bananas.

And resident John Toomey has vowed to fight on after branding the latest decision a “huge injustice” as well as “discrimination”.
The retired lawyer, 63, explained: “Our case is identical to a number of properties which have now been legalised.
“They want to reclaim the seafront, but there is no basis for this in law or reality.”
“A top Spanish architect (Angel Dias del Rio) put forward a case in Sevilla to show we were being discriminated against.
“But it was simply swept under the carpet by the Junta.”
Toomey, from London, also criticised the folly of trying to make an example of Banana Beach.
“They want to reclaim the seafront, but there is no basis for this in law or reality,” he added.
“If they really wanted to do this then they would have to demolish half of Marbella.”
On agreeing the new PGOU last week Marbella mayor Angeles Munoz previously declared that “16,000 families will now sleep in peace”.
Spare a thought for those Marbella homes still fighting for their own reconciliation.

JEREZ councillor has told English tourists to stay home.
In an astonishing rant tourism councillor Juan Manuel Garcia Bermudez blasted the English who do “nothing apart from drink all day long”.
Bermudes, 53, also raged that he was only interested in tourism that “enriched the area”.

“We certainly don’t want the English who come over on their cheap flights and do nothing apart from drink all day long.”

The PSOE politician’s bewildering outburst will come as a blow to Andalucia tourist chiefs who have identified English tourism as crucial in overcoming the downturn.
“We certainly don’t want the English who come over on their cheap flights and do nothing apart from drink all day long,” criticised Bermudez.
“I want to make it clear that we only want tourism that will enrich the area.”
Bermudez had earlier been speaking about the need to further support local tourism so that “this economic motor can create jobs by 2011”.
The PSOE politician’s English wish could be granted after it emerged that pay talks between air traffic controllers and the Spanish airport authority broke down.
The failure to reach an agreement before March 31 – when the current pay deal expires – could throw the travel plans of Britons heading to Spain into chaos.
Spain is still recovering from a 16 per cent drop in tourism last yea

Three youths have been arrested in Marbella on suspicion of sexual abuse of a sixteen year old girl. All were friends of the girl.The victim at the apartment of a girlfriend when they were joined by three youths, one of whom was a former boyfriend with whom she had maintained an intimate relationship.The three youths then tied up the girl using computer cables and proceeded to sexually abuse her. The girl had to be treated at the Hospital Costa del Sol for injuries sustained in the attack.The girlfriend of the victim was also charged with the crime of failing to provide assistance.

Guardia Civil has arrested six people of Spanish, Swedish and Bulgarian nationalities, aged between 26 and 54, in connection with a planned express kidnapping of two businessmen on the Costa del Sol. They had rented a van with tinted windows and a house where they planned to hold their victims.The Civil Guard operation was codenamed ‘Golub’ and based in Benalmádena, Mijas and Marbella and six homes were searched as part of the operation. Items such as balaclava helmets and a latex mask complete with hair and ears were found, as well as three pistols and a quantity of ammunition, false number plates and photocopies of 500 € notes.The two businessmen who were the projected targets had already been told so by the gang, but their names have not been released.

arrested two Moroccan men, aged 32 and 38, who were found to be carrying 350 pellets containing 2.7 kilos of hashish in their insides. They were arrested during a routine control of passengers disembarking from the ferry from Nador, Morocco, and have been charged with a crime against public health.According to the officers, the men showed signs of nervousness and they were taken to a separate area to be searched. When nothing was found on their person, they were asked to take a voluntary x-ray, during which foreign bodies were detected in their colon, which they evacuated during the following days.During the month of January, 26 people were arrested at Almeria Port after they were found to be carrying different quantities of hashish in their anal cavities, which is a very dangerous practice and can have fatal consequences if the capsules break inside the body and the drugs are absorbed into the system.

Guardia Civil in Girona have arrested three of their own number in connection with drugs missing from the frontier post at La Jonquera. Reports indicate that the third man was arrested some days after his two companions who were imprisoned last week.
20minutos quotes sources close to the case as saying that a man has also been arrested in Figueras, accused of buying the cocaine and hashish from the officers who now face charges of drug trafficking and abuse of power. They graduated from the Guardia Civil academy just a few months ago. Investigations started last November when two kilos of cocaine among other substances went missing.

More demolition orders have been issued in Albox despite confusing statements by the Town Hall and the Mayor, Sr. José GarcíaIn an interview published on the English language Arboleasnow website , Sr. Garcia is reported to have denied the rumour that nine houses are affected, saying that only eight demolition orders have been issued "by the courts".This statement belies the fact that on the 15th December another of our members was issued with an order not by the courts, but by Albox Town Council itself!And on January 20th, the Official Bulletin board carried an instruction to demolish a building on a plot of land near Alcantarilla, Albox. However, the plot referred to has two homes on it as well as an uncompleted structure.We notified the owners and met with the Town Hall Secretary, who agreed to review the case file and advise us whether the order referred to one, or all, of the structures on the plot. In spite of repeated attempts we are still waiting for a response. The owners have only fifteen days to lodge an appeal and are very worried. They need this information from the Town Hall, and they need it now.We have been trying to set up a meeting with Sr. Garcia for three weeks. Having cancelled two previous appointments with us, we are now told we cannot speak to him until the middle of February. This, despite the fact that we represent eight of the affected families.It has been because of delays and lack of communication that the legal process in these cases is so advanced it has resulted in people being deprived of their right to defend themselves.Avoiding difficult questions is not an option for the authorities. In order to solve the problem we need ongoing, open and co-operative dialogue to reach a consensual solution involving public bodies, interested associations and all the political parties.

unidentified man has been arrested in La Linea de la Concepción, Cádiz in connection with the stabbing to death of a 27 year old in the town on Monday night.
Local residents say that the stabbing happened at around 11pm and an injured man was found in the area of Calle Sócrates. El País reports that the victim was able to tell local police the name of his attacker before he died.

Paul Lyons,born in 1961 ,was detained at Alicante airport last week and will be extradited to Scotland for an alleged crime committed there.He was allegedly involved in a fatal crash which is thought to have involved road rage.It is said that Lyons drove at a van on the M-74 near Larkhall in Scotland,causing the other vehicle to go off the road.The 32 year old driver was killed and his passenger was seriously injured.Mr Lyons faces a number of charges including causing death by dangerous driving.According to the police he was speeding,over the alcohol limit and driving dangerously.He was also serving a driving ban .Since his extradition he has appeared in court and has been remanded in custody.He had fled to Spain after the incident in Scotland and has been subject to a European arrest warrant.
The Spanish police have been working with the British Serious Organised Crime squad and they were on the look out for the person who was bringing the 2 year old son of Lyons out to Spain to see him.The Lyon family has been linked to organised crime in Glasgow it is alleged.

fraudster who appeared on Britain's most wanted list with his girlfriend after they fled to Spain was jailed on Friday.Anthony Kearney, 45, and Donna McCafferty, 43, were tracked down to the Costa Blanca in November 2008 within 24 hours of a Crimestoppers appeal.The couple, who illegally claimed thousands of pounds in housing benefit, admitted a string of charges at Glasgow Sheriff Court last month. Kearney was sentenced to a total of four years and four months after pleading guilty to three fraud charges and one under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

1,000 cellophane wrapped balls of hashish – enough for 28,000 “joints” – have been recovered from the intestines of seven young Moroccan men who arrived at Almeria port recently.

The Marbella planning office, counted a total of 38,194 buildings which do not comply with the current PGOU Urban Plan guidelines, which was approved in 1986.The list of illegal properties includes homes, hotels, schools, gas stations, golf courses, shopping malls, industrial warehouses and a heliport.90 per cent of the buildings are homes.La Opinión de Málaga published the figures on Monday.

Juan Antonio Roca and Julián Muñoz must return thousands spent on restaurants, hotels and bonuses claimed through a municipal companyTwo of the people accused in Marbella’s Malaya case have been ordered to pay back more than 300,000 € of ‘unjustified expenses’ claimed from Marbella Town Hall in a ruling from the Court of Auditors regarding the municipal company Planeamiento 2000. The Town Hall had claimed the much higher amount of 1.8 million €. It relates to company accounts between 1997 and 2001 when the man at the centre of the Malaya corruption, the former municipal real estate assessor, Juan Antonio Roca, was manager of Planeamiento 2000 and the town’s former Mayor, Julián Muñoz, was chairman of the board.Both must share the cost of paying back the money with two others seen to have been involved, former Marbella councillor, Esteban Guzmán, and the lawyer, Modesto Perodia. Diario Sur reports the four have also been charged the interest on the amount, more than 122,000 €.The paper notes that the expenses relate to thousands of euros spent in restaurants, plane tickets to Madrid, hotel bills and ‘unjustified bonuses’, in Roca’s case, amounting to almost 223,000 €. The court did not however accept a claim from Marbella Town Hall for 900,000 € which had been paid into the Planeamiento 2000 account by the Mancomunidad to purchase the land on which the desalination plant would later be built. The Tribunal de Cuentas considered it not proved that the funds had later been withdrawn from the account or had been ‘improperly used’.Diario Sur reports two other rulings from the Tribunal de Cuentas last year which, in addition to this latest, mean the ex Mayor, Julián Muñoz, now owes close to 17 million € in the repayments plus interest he must make to Marbella Town Hall.

Two people have been taken into custody by police after 12 kilos of heroin were discovered in the fuel tank of a car intercepted in Tui, Pontevedra, in Galicia. Officers found 21 packages of the drug floating in the tank when they inspected the vehicle.The drugs were transported to Galicia by a Madrid-based gang from Kosovo which had been under police surveillance for some time and which the Interior Ministry said supplied heroin to dealers across the country. The two suspects in custody are the car driver and another gang member who was arrested at the same time in Madrid.Detectives found more than 100,000 € in cash in a search of the flat the group used as their base in the Spanish capital, and also seized 18 mobile phones and a laptop computer. Further arrests have not been ruled out as investigations continue.

'Puerto Banus is like Soho,' he told me at his house. 'You can come out of a theatre in the West End and go to a beautiful restaurant, or go into a side street and find hookers and drug addicts. It's the same here.'
Max, only half-jokingly, suggested that he'd like to be mayor and sort it out. 'I'd clean it up,' he said. 'Someone needs to, because the prostitutes are getting younger and drugs are being sold more brazenly. It's getting rougher.'
One of the main culprits locals blame for the disintegration of Marbella's image is Gary Lineker's brother, Wayne, a cheeky-chappie character with a big grin and even bigger bank balance. His chain of Lineker's bars have become hugely popular throughout Southern Europe. I interviewed him in his main Puerto Banus bar and he was totally unrepentant.
'Marbella's a high-profile place,' he chortled, 'and fortunately for Lineker's, it's turning towards the crowd we want, the working-class British man and woman. We go through 15,000 bottles of beer a weekend now. And the more mucky stories that people write about the place back in Britain, the better business gets. Where there's muck there's money!'
Asked what his message to the rich and famous of Marbella was, Wayne smirked and pronounced: 'Do one.' Which I believe is Lineker's speak for 'Go forth and multiply.'
In the great old days of the town, Ava Gardner and Audrey Hepburn would dine with the likes of Cary Grant and Laurence Olivier at the fashionable Marbella Club.
Today, the cast list of luminaries is a little lower down the celebrity ladder. I ventured down to the coast again to meet up with Bianca Gascoigne, stepdaughter of footballer Gazza, at the infamous Nikki Beach bar. As we spoke, hundreds of half-naked young people began spraying vintage champagne on each other in a four-hourly exercise called, naturally, Champagne Spray Party.
'Do you think this is a sensible thing to be doing in the middle of a recession?' I asked Bianca. 'Absolutely not,' the cheeky minx replied, 'but it's definitely a fun thing to do!'
And that is the attitude of most of the revellers in Marbella. 'Having fun' is the order of the day, and as much of it as you can possibly cram into 24 hours.
'I'm meeting up with Calum Best later,' Bianca giggled, conjuring up the mind-boggling prospect of a Best and a Gascoigne getting drunk together.
One reason the celebrities at each end of the ladder love it so much is that nobody in Marbella, outside of the expats like Max Clifford, seems to care very much what you get up to or what you did in your past.
I found one legendary old rogue, Princess Diana's cad James Hewitt, running a smart new restaurant called the Polo House in Marbella's most exclusive street.
'I had to get away from Britain,' he admitted, 'and this has been the perfect refuge for me. There are no paparazzi, nobody bothers me except when I am happy to be bothered in the restaurant, and I've found the peace and privacy that I could never have back home.
'It's also a very comfortable lifestyle here. But there are two very different worlds. Since the cheap easyJet flights came in, all the hen and stag parties have started flooding into Puerto Banus, and that's changed the character a little from the quite smart, glamorous place it used to be.
'It's also driven the really rich people out a bit, tucked away in the secluded areas on the outskirts.'
That's indisputably true. But the rich still head down to the port occasionally to hit their credit cards in one of the world's most expensive shopping precincts.
I went shopping with former Birmingham City soccer boss Karren Brady. She's about to join Lord Alan Sugar as his new Apprentice sidekick, so should know a thing or two about business. But watching her sweep through Gucci, Prada and Fendi like a human vacuum cleaner was a terrifying spectacle.
Her eyes alighted on a rather plain-looking handbag. 'Oooh, that's lovely,' she cooed. 'You can never have enough handbags.' This one boasted a price tag of £15,000.
'Who the hell buys this kind of thing?' I gasped.
'Oh, there's a lot of serious wealth in Marbella,' she chuckled. 'And they come down to Puerto Banus for the glamour, the yachts, the celebrities, the shops. There are two sides to this place. But both sides are quite fun. It's part euro, part trash.'
And that, at its heart, is Marbella. A place to retire to, party in, make a fortune, spend a fortune, drink shots, get shot --whatever takes your fancy.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-1242085/Piers-Morgan-heads-Marbella-Spains-Butlins-billionaires.html#ixzz0cUYOMKHk

Marbella was the best in the 80s, Freddie Foreman was cool.'Puerto Banus is like Soho,' he told me at his house. 'You can come out of a theatre in the West End and go to a beautiful restaurant, or go into a side street and find hookers and drug addicts. It's the same here.'
Max, only half-jokingly, suggested that he'd like to be mayor and sort it out. 'I'd clean it up,' he said. 'Someone needs to, because the prostitutes are getting younger and drugs are being sold more brazenly. It's getting rougher.'
One of the main culprits locals blame for the disintegration of Marbella's image is Gary Lineker's brother, Wayne, a cheeky-chappie character with a big grin and even bigger bank balance. His chain of Lineker's bars have become hugely popular throughout Southern Europe. I interviewed him in his main Puerto Banus bar and he was totally unrepentant.
'Marbella's a high-profile place,' he chortled, 'and fortunately for Lineker's, it's turning towards the crowd we want, the working-class British man and woman. We go through 15,000 bottles of beer a weekend now. And the more mucky stories that people write about the place back in Britain, the better business gets. Where there's muck there's money!'
Asked what his message to the rich and famous of Marbella was, Wayne smirked and pronounced: 'Do one.' Which I believe is Lineker's speak for 'Go forth and multiply.'
In the great old days of the town, Ava Gardner and Audrey Hepburn would dine with the likes of Cary Grant and Laurence Olivier at the fashionable Marbella Club.
Today, the cast list of luminaries is a little lower down the celebrity ladder. I ventured down to the coast again to meet up with Bianca Gascoigne, stepdaughter of footballer Gazza, at the infamous Nikki Beach bar. As we spoke, hundreds of half-naked young people began spraying vintage champagne on each other in a four-hourly exercise called, naturally, Champagne Spray Party.
'Do you think this is a sensible thing to be doing in the middle of a recession?' I asked Bianca. 'Absolutely not,' the cheeky minx replied, 'but it's definitely a fun thing to do!'
And that is the attitude of most of the revellers in Marbella. 'Having fun' is the order of the day, and as much of it as you can possibly cram into 24 hours.
'I'm meeting up with Calum Best later,' Bianca giggled, conjuring up the mind-boggling prospect of a Best and a Gascoigne getting drunk together.
One reason the celebrities at each end of the ladder love it so much is that nobody in Marbella, outside of the expats like Max Clifford, seems to care very much what you get up to or what you did in your past.
I found one legendary old rogue, Princess Diana's cad James Hewitt, running a smart new restaurant called the Polo House in Marbella's most exclusive street.
'I had to get away from Britain,' he admitted, 'and this has been the perfect refuge for me. There are no paparazzi, nobody bothers me except when I am happy to be bothered in the restaurant, and I've found the peace and privacy that I could never have back home.
'It's also a very comfortable lifestyle here. But there are two very different worlds. Since the cheap easyJet flights came in, all the hen and stag parties have started flooding into Puerto Banus, and that's changed the character a little from the quite smart, glamorous place it used to be.
'It's also driven the really rich people out a bit, tucked away in the secluded areas on the outskirts.'
That's indisputably true. But the rich still head down to the port occasionally to hit their credit cards in one of the world's most expensive shopping precincts.
I went shopping with former Birmingham City soccer boss Karren Brady. She's about to join Lord Alan Sugar as his new Apprentice sidekick, so should know a thing or two about business. But watching her sweep through Gucci, Prada and Fendi like a human vacuum cleaner was a terrifying spectacle.
Her eyes alighted on a rather plain-looking handbag. 'Oooh, that's lovely,' she cooed. 'You can never have enough handbags.' This one boasted a price tag of £15,000.
'Who the hell buys this kind of thing?' I gasped.
'Oh, there's a lot of serious wealth in Marbella,' she chuckled. 'And they come down to Puerto Banus for the glamour, the yachts, the celebrities, the shops. There are two sides to this place. But both sides are quite fun. It's part euro, part trash.'
And that, at its heart, is Marbella. A place to retire to, party in, make a fortune, spend a fortune, drink shots, get shot --whatever takes your fancy.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-1242085/Piers-Morgan-heads-Marbella-Spains-Butlins-billionaires.html#ixzz0cUYOMKHk

Jamal Shakir, the leader of the Rollin’ 90s Crips, and more than 40 other defendants in 1998 as part of a massive gang violence investigation.Shakir was accused of killing or playing a role in the deaths of nine people while running part of a massive drug enterprise from his Nashville home. He was found guilty in May of 2008 and faces life in prison.Authorities say he has continued to direct the gang from behind bars. In October, two alleged gang members were charged with plotting to break him out of jail by using a helicopter to lift him off the exercise yard.