Municipal sale
Vélez-Málaga Town Hall is to sell off 33
plots of municipal land in Vélez, Torre
del Mar, Chilches, Benajarafe, Lagos and
El Trapiche. It hopes to raise a total of
€5.1 million in the move. Sites include
Finca Monterrey on the Arenas road
which was purchased in 2005 with plans
to build 220 wooden homes there for
young people.
Young mother
An investigation has opened into the case
of an 11-year-old girl who gave birth to a
baby boy in Murcia last month. Mother
and child are both reported to be well.
According to reports, neither the girl nor
her family knew that she was pregnant
when they took her hospital complaining
of stomach pains.
Screen test
A man stopped by police in Navarra for
watching a 32-inch TV set while driving
tested positive for amphetamines. He was
also found to be carrying narcotics. The
suspect, who is in his 40s, is said to have a
long police record and now faces a hefty
fine plus a substantial number of points
deducted from his licence.
Fruitful arrests
Local police in Sevilla were surprised
after stopping three vehicles which had
made a sudden evasive manoeuvre. They
were so full of oranges that when a door
was opened, dozens tumbled onto the
road. Five members of the same family
claimed the 4,000 kilos of fruit was for
their own use but they were quickly
linked to a reported theft from a local
warehouse.
Tax avoidance
On-line companies will soon be obliged
pay taxes on Spanish earnings in Spain,
even if their fiscal base is in another
country. Speaking to small business and
the self-employed last month, prime
minister Mariano Rajoy said new
regulations will avoid digital
environments being used “as a source for
tax avoidance.” The move is part of the
initiative to advance the digital
transformation of the economy.
Visits regulated
Visits to the Cíes Islands off Galicia are to
be regulated after Easter. Permits to
access the archipelago will be limited to
groups of up to 25, each of whom must be
identified, and will be valid for one day
and non-transferable. The islands were
declared a Nature Reserve in 1980 and are
part of the Atlantic Islands of Galicia
National Park.
Baggies steal
Barcelona taxi
Police in Barcelona are investigating
four players with the English Premier
League team West Bromwich Albion
(“The Baggies”) who were in the city
last month for four days of training at
RCD Español’s complex in El Prat de
Llobregat. West Brom also launched its
own investigation and the club is
reported to have fined each player two
weeks wages for staying out past the
curfew set by Head Coach Alan
Pardew.
The players, named as Jonny Evans,
Gareth Barry, Jake Livermore and Boaz
Myhill, are reported to have taken a
taxi to a branch of McDonald’s in the
city’s Port Olímpic marina and, while
the driver was inside, driven the car off
at about 5.30am. They drove to their
hotel five kilometres away, parked the
car outside and went to bed.
A receptionist at the hotel who spotted
the abandoned taxi alerted the police
and the players were woken and taken
to the local police headquarters for
questioning by a judge. It is understood
that none was breathalysed, because
the car had not been stopped while
being driven, and all four were later
released.
The players later issued a statement
which made no reference to the taxi
The One hotel, Barcelona, where the West
Brom team was staying
theft but read simply, “We freely
acknowledge and apologise for the
break of curfew which we accept
represented a breach of the standards
of professionalism required of us as
representatives of West Bromwich
Albion.”
While Alan Pardew said he felt “let
down,” the club said that, although the
police investigation is continuing, they
believe the police action will be
concluded without the need for any
player to return to Spain. The taxi was
returned to its owner at 8am.
Animal trafficking arrests
in Málaga
Eleven people are under investigation
in Málaga in a police operation to
combat the illegal trafficking of
protected species. The investigation by
the Guardia Civil’s environmental arm
Seprona began early last year when
advertisements were found on-line
offering primates for sale.
It was discovered that the sellers were
in Sevilla, Granada, Alicante and Jaén
and were using false identities. Officers
also established the animals were
illegal, with no indication of where
they had come from, and without any
form of sanitary controls. The
investigation managed to halt the sale
of five marmosets and a tamarind,
18
valued at more than €12,500. One of
those questioned has already been
charged with fraud after it was found
that a pair of marmosets offered for
€3,000 did not in fact exist. Police
have warned that the sale of such
animals, specifically marmosets, is
prohibited under CITES Convention,
in addition to which, the animals can
carry many deadly diseases including
malaria, dengue, rabies and AIDS.
News of the investigation last month
came as Ministers approved a new
national plan to strengthen inspections
and controls on animal trafficking.
Spain’s initiative is the first such plan
in the EU.