Ibiza Sun - Crime and Incidents

Crime and Incidents

Complaints
The Local Police carried out an inspection on a telephone/money exchange shop in Ibiza Town last week after receiving numerous complaints from members of the public. In total they found 232 food items which had either passed their sell by date or were not correctly labelled. In addition police found that the surveillance system had been installed without informing customers that their movements were being captured on CCTV. The establishment had also been remitting money to other countries, without being in possession of the necessary licences from the Bank of Spain.

Robberies
The man who is thought to have committed robberies in Can Bellotera and Santa Gertrudis recently, was arrested last week when he was stopped as part of a routine check during the early hours of the morning. The officers recognised him as fitting the description of the wanted criminal and took him into custody, accused of intimidation and robbery with violence; he had threatened the shop assistant in Can Bellotera with a screwdriver and the other in Santa Gertrudis with a knife. In his defence, the thief told the judge that he needed the money to fuel his drug addiction, especially to cocaine. The prosecution lawyer also questioned him about other similar robberies which have been perpetrated over the past month or so, but he denied any knowledge of them. He was subsequently imprisoned, awaiting a court ruling.

Justice
A protest march was held through the streets of Ibiza Town last week, calling for justice in the Marta del Castillo case, coinciding with the third anniversary of her death. All over Spain people turned out to show their support for Marta’s parents and family. The recent trial found only one person to be responsible for her death, Miguel Carcaño, and although the jury admitted that some of the other youths accused of her murder had been involved, there was not sufficient evidence to prove conclusively that they had had a hand in the crime.
Carcaño admitted that he killed seventeen year old Marta with an ashtray and disposed of her body, but claimed he could not remember where. In the three years since her murder numerous searches have been conducted in the countryside, the land-fill sites and the nearby river Guadalquivir, as his memories of that fateful night changed from week to week, giving a total of nine different variations as to the final resting place of his victim. It was the lack of forensic evidence which could have been recovered from the corpse which has allowed the other five people implicated in the crime to be freed.
Carcaño was sentenced earlier this month to twenty years behind bars, he will not be allowed to live in the same town as Marta’s family for thirty years, will have to pay one seventh of the costs of the trial and pay damages to Marta’s parents of 280,000€, as well as 30,000€ to each of her two siblings. However, with good conduct, it is possible that he could be freed in about seven years’ time and has already served almost three.

Help
The spiritual leader of the Mosque in Santa Eulalia, Salahuddin Costa, is attempting to collect the 5,000€ necessary to repatriate the body of a six year old boy. Gora’s family is from Gambia, has lived on the Island for several years and worked in the hippy market at Punta Arabí during the summer. The little boy was admitted to Can Misses Hospital with severe stomach cramps and vomiting and diagnosed with gastroenteritis. The following day he felt much better and was able to eat a snack and have a shower, so his father went home to change his clothes while the mother stayed at the hospital with her son. However later in the day his condition worsened severely and, for as yet unknown reasons, he died.
Costa explained to the press that the Mosque has now taken out a special insurance to help repatriate the deceased, together with a companion. So far they have played their part in the repatriation of 26 corpses over the years.

Contamination
Residents in the Can Xiquet Pou area have warned about a slick of industrial oil which is evident in the torrent which crosses the main Ibiza/Santa Eulalia road. They are concerned that the oil will infiltrate into the subsoil and have an adverse affect on the underground water courses. There is a warehouse nearby which is occasionally the source of dirty water, but rarely has oil been seen in the area.

Arrest
The man who set fire to his estranged wife’s home near San Carlos during the middle of last month was arrested last week. He had been in hiding since the incident but was discovered, living rough, by a policeman who knew him. Although the initial reports suggested that the wife was at home when he started the blaze, she was, in fact, with friends in Ibiza Town and her life was therefore never in danger. The man, identified as ‘José CC’ in court, has three cases pending; the first dating back to the end of November when he was prohibited from communicating with his wife and later sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for disobeying the order. He has also made his wife’s life a misery and had even threatened to commit suicide so that she would have to pay for his funeral.

What a Memory!
A man was so inebriated one night last week that he forgot where he had parked his car and had to ring the local San José police station in an attempt to find it. They were pleased to hear from him as he had not ‘parked’ his vehicle at all but had abandoned it in the middle of Calle Murta in Playa d’en Bossa, causing disruptions to the traffic flow. He explained that he could not remember anything about the previous evening and still seemed to be suffering the effects of drink; when breathalysed he was still over the limit, several hours later.

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