SHARE
COPY LINK

KIDNAP

Kidnapped Barcelona girl found in Amazon forest

A nine-year-old Barcelona girl who went missing seven months ago has been rescued from captivity deep in Bolivia's Amazon rainforest.

Kidnapped Barcelona girl found in Amazon forest
The girl's parents allowed her to go on holiday with a Bolivian neighbour they were friends with. File Photo: fiat.luxury/Flickr

The child had been missing since last August when her parents, Moroccan residents in the Catalan city of Hospitalet de Llobregat, allowed her to go on holiday with a Bolivian neighbour they were friends with.

The girl's mother and father spoke to local police when they were unable to contact the pair several days after they had landed in their alleged destination of Bolivia.

Spain’s Civil Guard and Catalonia's Mossos d’Esquadra police forces worked with Bolivian authorities to try to determine where the girl and her captor were located.

READ THE UPDATE : 'I had parents' blessing: Rainforest kidnapper

After seven months, police found the pair in a remote part of Bolivia's Cochabamba region.

They were hidden away deep inside Bolivia’s Amazon rainforest in a terrain barely reachable by car, Catalan daily La Vanguardia reported on Tuesday.

The alleged kidnapper, 35-year-old Grover Morales, faces charges of human trafficking and sexual abuse, Bolivian press are reporting.

He told local television stations he had permission from the girl's parents to marry her as he was a Muslim convert.

The girl has undergone medical and psychological tests in the city of Cochabamba and will be travelling to Spain soon to be reunited with her parents.

A judge will release more information in coming days.

Don't miss stories about Spain, join us on Facebook and Twitter.    

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

POLICE

Spanish police arrest man over alleged kidnap of daughter at gunpoint in Britain

Spanish police said Wednesday they have arrested an Algerian man who allegedly snatched his two-year-old daughter at gunpoint in Britain and fled the country with her.

Spanish police arrest man over alleged kidnap of daughter at gunpoint in Britain
File photo of a man in handcuffs. Photo: Anthony Wallace/AFP.

The 44-year-old was detained on a plane at Madrid airport during a scheduled stop en route to Oran, Algeria's second city, on August 1st, the same day he abducted his daughter in Nottingham, a police spokesman said.

The man, who had lost custody of his daughter, turned up at the house where she was staying “and took her by force after threatening the staff with a firearm and tying them up,” police said in a statement.

“Officers located and detained the fugitive in a plane which was about to take off. The girl was with him”.

British police said reports that the girl had been in a children's home were inaccurate and she was in fact taken from a family home.   

As part of the same investigation, British police have also arrested and charged a 43-year-old woman for child abduction, possession of a firearm, false imprisonment and aggravated burglary.

The girl was handed over to social services in Madrid until she can be returned to Britain, the Spanish police spokesman said.   

The man is waiting to appear before a judge in Madrid who will decide whether to extradite him back to Britain to face trial, he added.

SHOW COMMENTS