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CRIME

Love scam debts blamed for murder of Spanish pensioners

The murder of three siblings in their 70s in a Spanish village could be linked to debts racked through an online romance scam with two alleged US servicemen, reports said Friday.

A local police car is pictured parked in Madrid.
A local police car is pictured parked in Madrid. The murder of three siblings in their 70s in a Spanish village southeast of Madrid could be linked to debts racked through an online romance scam, reports said Friday. Photo: AFP / GABRIEL BOUYS

The three bodies were found in a pile, partially burned, in the family home in Morata de Tajuna, a village some 35 kilometres (22 miles) southeast of Madrid, after neighbours raised the alarm, a police source told AFP.

Neighbours raised the alarm after not seeing the two sisters and their disabled brother for some time.

Police said the deaths were being treated as murder due to a suspected link to a debt.

The tragedy may have been linked to a fake online love affair, the El Pais and El Mundo newspapers along with TVE public television, said quoting residents.

The two sisters had apparently entered into a long-distance relationship with two alleged US servicemen, with the conmen leading them to believe one had died.

The surviving soldier told them he needed money so he could send them a multi-million-dollar inheritance and the sisters racked up huge debts to send him money. The women had asked other people in the village for money.

“They weren’t asking for 100 euros or 20, they were asking you for 5,000 or 6,000 euros,” one neighbour told TVE.

The sisters sent the money because the surviving soldier had promised seven million euros in “inheritance money” and refused to believe it was a scam, another neighbour told TVE.

Police would not comment on the reports.

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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.

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.

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