Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

CRIME

Spanish man lives with dead mother’s body to collect pension

A Spanish man who allegedly lived with the body of his dead mother for up to a year to continue to collect her pension has been arrested, police said Thursday.

Published: 13 December 2018 17:51 CET
Spanish man lives with dead mother's body to collect pension
The address in Madrid where the grim discovery was made. Photo: Google Maps.

Officers found the woman's “badly decomposed” body at a Madrid flat on Wednesday after receiving a call from neighbours who reported a “strong odour”, a police spokesman said.

Police then detained the woman's 62-year-old son for fraud for failing to report her death aged 92 and continuing to collect her pension, he added.   

“The son did not do what he should have done,” the spokesman said, adding that the man lived in the flat with his mother's remains for “several months, possibly almost a year”.

The grim discovery was made on Wednesday in the flat at number 12, Calle Salvador Alonso in the San Isidro neighbourhood of Madrid. 

READ ALSO: Son and daughter jailed for neglecting 76-year-old sick mother

CRIME

Europol bust cocaine gang with arrests in Marbella and Canary Islands

Europol said Thursday that a crime ring smuggling drugs into Europe had collapsed as the result of an investigation involving 40 arrests and the seizure of eight tonnes of cocaine.

Published: 13 June 2024 14:52 CEST
Europol bust cocaine gang with arrests in Marbella and Canary Islands

The Hague-based European police force said the entire cartel, whose leaders were based in Turkey and Dubai, had been dealt a major blow after a final set of arrests Wednesday.

The vast three-year-long operation involved police forces from a dozen countries and ranged from Brazil to Spain via Turkey.

According to Europol, the final phase of the operation began with the discovery in August 2023 by the Spanish Guardia Civil of 700 kilos (1,540 pounds)of cocaine in a boat off the Canary Islands, crewed by Croat and Italian citizens.

After exchanging their findings with other police forces, the investigators found links with previous seizures which led to the identification of the masterminds.

In all, 40 people were arrested in six countries, including two top Croat members of the network, who were arrested at the end of 2023 in Istanbul, police said.

The last four arrests took place on Wednesday in Spain, according to Europol.

In one operation witnessed by an AFP journalist, heavily armed members of Spain’s Guardia Civil arrested a 40-year-old man at dawn at his home near Marbella, a seaside resort popular with drug traffickers.

The smugglers shipped cocaine from South America to logistical hubs in west Africa and the Canary Islands.

The drugs were then sent on to centres in Belgium, Croatia, Germany, Italy and Spain for distribution across Europe.

Many of the drug network’s assets, with a total value of several tens of millions of euros, had been seized or frozen, Europol added.

SHOW COMMENTS