Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

CRIME

Vatican to probe 251 paedophilia cases in Spanish church: report

A Spanish newspaper investigation that found 251 alleged paedophiles inside the country's Catholic church has been sent to the Vatican which has opened an internal inquiry, media reported Sunday.

Published: 20 December 2021 09:21 CET
priest repents
Since 2001, the Vatican has already received 220 sexual assault complaints. Photo: Valentine Chapuis/AFP

“The church has opened a major investigation, unprecedented in Spain, into 251 members of the clergy and a number of lay organisations accused of sexually assaulting minors which this newspaper has been investigating for three years,” El Pais wrote.

The accusations and witness testimonies stretching from 1943 to 2018 were detailed in a report handed to the pope on December 2, said the daily, which has begun to publish the first anonymised accounts on its website.

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, which is responsible for investigating such allegations, was unable to confirm the opening of investigations to AFP Sunday.

The Spanish Episcopal Conference “reiterates its commitment and willingness to undertake an investigation into all cases of abuse” and “encourages all victims to submit their complaints”, the organisation said in a statement Sunday.

Since 2001, the Vatican has already received 220 sexual assault complaints, a spokesperson for the Spanish Episcopal Conference told AFP.

READ ALSO: ‘No desire for truth’ in Spain’s Catholic church over child sex abuse

Member comments

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

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.

Published: 16 May 2024 17:07 CEST
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?

SHOW COMMENTS