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Two Spanish Guardia Civil killed in drug raid chase: police

Two Spanish civil guards were killed Friday after being hit by a drug traffickers' boat during a chase, a police source said.

Published: 10 February 2024 10:09 CET
Two Spanish Guardia Civil killed in drug raid chase: police
Spanish Guardia Civil stand as boat crew members tie an alleged narco-submarine before towing it in Galicia. Photo: Miguel RIOPA/AFP.

Police did not give details but a video shared on several media sites showed a chase in the harbour at Barbate, near the major southern port of Cádiz.

Three speeding small boats could be seen in the nighttime chase.

The AUGC Guardia Civil, an association representing the paramilitary police, condemned the “tragic events” and called for an “in-depth inquiry”.

The sea off Cádiz has seen several confrontations and major drug seizures by customs and police.

Spain is a major transit point for narcotics arriving in Europe from North Africa.

READ ALSO: Why is Spain Europe’s cocaine gateway?

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CRIME

Spanish police recover stolen Francis Bacon painting

Spanish police said Thursday they have recovered a €5 million ($5.4 million) painting by late British artist Francis Bacon that was stolen with four other of his works in 2015.

Published: 23 May 2024 14:09 CEST
Spanish police recover stolen Francis Bacon painting

The work is one of five portraits of Spanish banker Jose Capelo by Bacon, together worth over €25 million ($27 million), which were stolen from Capelo’s Madrid home in July 2015.

The thieves also made off with a safe that contained coins and jewels in what was described at the time as one of the biggest contemporary art thefts in Spain. Police recovered three of the five paintings in 2017.

In a statement, police said they had arrested two people suspected of involvement in the theft, which allowed them to recover one of the stolen works still missing at a property in Madrid.

Police have so far arrested 16 people suspected over the theft since 2015, including the person believed to have ordered the heist and those who carried it out, the statement added.

“Investigations are continuing to locate the remaining work and arrest those in possession of it, with the focus on Spanish nationals with links to organised groups from Eastern Europe,” the statement said.

Police did not provide further details about the people involved in the robbery or how they were identified.

Bacon is regarded as one of Britain’s greatest recent painters, with some of his expressionist works achieving record amounts at auction.

His triptych “Three Studies of Lucian Freud” sold for $142.4 million at auction in New York in 2013, making it one of the world’s most expensive works at the time.

Bacon often visited Madrid, where he spent time studying old masters paintings in the Prado Museum, and died in the city in 1992, aged 82.

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