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Indian police arrest five more after Spanish tourist gang raped

Indian police have arrested five more men in connection with the gang rape of a Spanish tourist, taking the total detained to eight, local media reported Tuesday.

Indian police arrest five more after Spanish tourist gang raped
Fernanda and her husband Vicente were attacked when they camped on a retreat in the village of Kunji, in the state of Jharkhand. Image: Screengrab

The attack on the woman, who was on a motorbike trip with her husband, took place last week in Dumka district in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand where the couple was camping.

The Press Trust of India news agency broadcasted footage of five suspects, handcuffed and tied to each other in a line by a rope, in front of seated police officers.

On Monday, three other men appeared in court — also with sacks on their heads -– and were later remanded in custody.

“Eight arrests have been made so far in connection with the alleged gang rape of a Spanish woman”, PTI said, citing police officers.

READ MORE: Gang rape of Spanish tourist in India shocks Spain

The authorities have handed a cheque of $12,000 to the couple as compensation under a “victim compensation scheme”, broadcaster NDTV reported.

The woman, who identified herself on social media, posted a statement after the latest arrests.

“They have caught all the criminals, and there were eight in total,” she wrote, thanking the “efficient” police.

“I ask for justice… (for) all of the women who also have to go through this.”

An average of nearly 90 rapes a day were reported in India in 2022, according to data from the National Crime Records Bureau.

However, large numbers go unreported due to prevailing stigmas around victims and a lack of faith in police investigations.

Convictions remain rare, with cases getting stuck for years in India’s clogged-up criminal justice system.

The notorious gang rape and murder of an Indian student made global headlines in 2012.

Jyoti Singh, a 23-year-old physiotherapy student, was raped, assaulted and left for dead by five men and a teenager on a bus in New Delhi in December that year.

The horrific crime shone an international spotlight on India’s high levels of sexual violence and sparked weeks of protests, and eventually a change in the law to introduce the death penalty for rape.

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CRIME

Spain seizes 1.8 tonnes of Sinaloa Cartel’s crystal meth

Spanish police said Thursday they had seized 1,800 kilos of crystal meth that Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel was trying to sell in Europe, the country's "biggest-ever seizure" of the narcotic.

Spain seizes 1.8 tonnes of Sinaloa Cartel's crystal meth

Police arrested five people during the raid in the eastern Alicante province, one of them a Mexican running the cartel’s Spanish operation, a statement said.

“This is the biggest-ever seizure of crystal meth in Spain and the second largest in Europe,” Antonio Martinez Duarte, head of the police’s drug trafficking and organised crime unit, told reporters.

“Among those arrested is a Mexican citizen linked to the Sinaloa Cartel,” he added.

READ ALSO: What are the penalties for drug possession in Spain?

He did not give his name but indicated the suspect was responsible for receiving the narcotics in Spain then distributing them within Europe.

The Sinaloa Cartel is one of Mexico’s oldest, largest and most violent criminal groups whose influence remains strong despite the arrest of its founder Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman and his son.

Both have been extradited to and jailed in the United States.

During the operation, police also detained three Spaniards and a Romanian, seizing five cars, documents, a weapon and cash.

But police believe it was a one-off trafficking operation and that “Mexican organisations are not permanently based” in Spain, Martinez Duarte said.

“These organisations send a trusted person who carries out the operation in line with their interests” and once that is over, he goes back home, he explained.

The seized narcotics had been due to be shipped to central Europe.

Although Spain is one of the main drug gateways to Europe, seizures of synthetic narcotics are uncommon as most traffickers usually deal in cannabis and cocaine.

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

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