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CRIME

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

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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