Drugs bust
Five members of a criminal gang which
brought drugs into the province on
pleasure craft have been arrested by the
Guardia Civil. Three were arrested on a
boat off Caleta de Vélez after 177 kilos
hashish was found on board by
investigators. When the vessel was
docked, a further 680 kilos was found
hidden under a false floor.
More visitors
Overnight stays at hotels in Andalucía
between January and September are
expected to be 1.5% up on the same period
last year. The Tourism Ministry expects
the increase of 662,000 bookings to
produce an average occupation of 58%. In
August alone, it adds, the region’s
expected total of 7.34 million overnight
reservations will be 3.2% more than in
2017.
Scooter fine
A 67-year-old man who was found
travelling along the MA-21 autovía on an
electric mobility scooter in Málaga has
been fined €480. He was prosecuted after
being found on the busy road at 10.15pm
in July, having forced several motorists to
execute dangerous manoeuvres to avoid
him. Police say that the users of mobility
scooters are considered to be pedestrians
and are therefore banned from autovías.
Market block
Residents of the Costa del Oro
urbanisation in Torrox Costa say the
weekly Monday market blocks access for
emergency vehicles. They have asked the
town hall to move the market stalls away
from avenidas Mediterráneo and
Esperanto, a move which was promised in
March 2015. At that time, a change was
anticipated “later this year.”
Tougher sentences
The Medical Association of Málaga has
asked the regional government to support
tougher penalties for assaults on health
staff and for the presence of security
guards in all health centres. They say that
present convictions do little to deter such
incidents taking place. In a little over a
month, the Association adds, there have
been five cases of attacks on health
professionals in Málaga.
Briton died
Six Britons appeared in court on Ibiza last
month after 23-year-old British tourist
died in a fight. Police in the resort of San
Antonio said the victim, named as Conor
Lee Spraggs from Stevenage, died in the
early hours of Sunday, August 12. Five
suspects were freed on bail, and the sixth
remained in custody pending a criminal
investigation.
“Terrorist attack” on
Catalan police
Security was stepped up at police
stations across Spain following an
attack in Barcelona on August 20. A
man wielding a knife and shouting in
Arabic was shot dead by an officer on
duty after entering the police
headquarters in Cornellà de Llobregat,
south of Barcelona.
The Mossos d’Esquadra, Cataluña’s
regional police force, said they were
treating the incident as a “terrorist
attack.” In an initial statement, they
said the suspect had a “clearly
homicidal will” and intended to attack
and kill an officer.
However, the police later stated it had
been an “isolated incident” and there
was no evidence of the actions of a
terrorist cell.
Last month’s attacker is reported to
have been a 29-year-old man of
Algerian origin who entered the
building shortly before 6.00am
shouting, “Allahu Akbar” (God is
greatest). He was immediately
challenged by a female officer and a
sergeant and when the man rushed
forward, he was shot. His home nearby
was searched and his partner was
questioned, but police refused to be
drawn on the attacker’s motives.
The Mossos added that there was no
apparent link with the attacks in
Barcelona and Tarragona on August 17
last year when a van was driven into
pedestrians in the Las Ramblas district
of Barcelona. The death toll over the
ensuing days totalled 16 victims plus
nine alleged perpetrators and their
associates, with more than 100 injured.
King Felipe led a ceremony in Barcelona
last month to mark the first anniversary.
The event included a flower-laying
ceremony at a mosaic designed by Joan
Miró, where the van used in the Las
Ramblas attack came to a halt.
Last month, the EC gave Spain a
further €4.2 million to help the
government fight terrorism and
organised crime.
Córdoba may celebrate
air-con inventor
The city of Córdoba, where
temperatures regularly top 40 degrees
in summer, may soon have a street in
the city named after the inventor of air
conditioning. Inland Andalucía is
frequently the hottest part of the
country and residents say without air-
con, the risk of heatstroke, which can
be fatal, would be extremely high.
Willis Haviland Carrier was born in
New York in November 1876, and in
1901 graduated from Cornell
University before being hired to solve
an overheating problem with
machinery at the Sackett-Wilhelms
Lithographing and Publishing
Company in Brookyln. He patente