All the police stations in the province have a deficit of numbers which is now described in some places as ‘alarming’. Biggest shortages are seen in Estepona, Torremolinos, Vélez-Málaga and Antequera.

Latest data shows the number of National Police in the province is at 81% capacity, 2,492 instead of the 3,067 required.Spokesman from the SUP police union in Málaga, Manuel Expósito, told the Diario Sur newspaper that apart from tourism the nature of the Costa del Sol was that there were more inhabitants than those officially registered on the census, and this led to more police work. In addition the Costa del Sol remains a crime hotspot with 61% of the crimes committed in Eastern Andalucía, that’s to say in the provinces of Málaga, Granada, Jaén and Almería.

Estepona Town Hall's outstanding debt with Telefónica has forced the company to cut off the council's telephones. The telephone company decided to bar outgoing calls from the Town Hall as a result of the local authority's outstanding debt of more than 200,000 euros. A few days ago a payment of 50,000 euros was made to the company to ensure that the telephones at the Local Police, fire station and Mayor's office weren't cut off too.

Carlos Barientos,charged with bribery and money laundering. The ex Mayor has already been held on remand in prison for four months. His cousin Carlos told the judge on Tuesday about several municipal decisions in which alleged payments of backhanders are under investigation.The current councillor for beaches, Miguel Navarro, has now also been charged with perversion of the course of justice in the case.Statements were also taken from two local businessmen, Aurelio Martin Simón, President of Costa del Sol Hipermercardos, who manages a Carrefour store in the town and who is promoting a new commercial centre, touted to be the largest in Spain.Owner of the Publiluna company, Francisco Antonio Navarro, also now faces charges of perversion of the course of justice and money laundering.

The ‘Astapa’ investigation has revealed two separate networks set up to manage the payment of illegal commissions at Estepona Town Hall.
Although connected, each group had its own secret ‘office’ where the deals were made, according to the investigations carried out by the Financial and Tax Crimes Unit (UDEF).
Documents seized in the search of the municipal premises appear to confirm that the corrupt group had been operating since June 2003 when the PSOE came into power with the help of councillors from the Partido de Estepona (PES, former members of GIL).
It appears that the first and most important of these commissions ‘offices’ was controlled by Barrientos himself and managed by the head of the Mayor’s office, José Flores, along with Francisco Zamorano and the former planning coordinator, Pedro López.
The second and more modest ‘branch’ of this network was run, according to the police investigation, by Arturo Cebrián. Business people paying commissions either met with the group in municipal offices or, especially in the case of smaller building firms, spoke on the telephone to someone calling himself ‘Raúl’ who told them in which bank account they had to make the payment.
“No building licence, planning agreement or re-zoning deal”, said the anti-corruption specialists, would have been given the green light if it hadn’t previously passed through this ‘parallel administration’ at Estepona Town Hall. Detectives have had the collaboration of two key figures who were familiar with the workings of these clandestine ‘offices’ at Estepona Town Hall. Apparently these collaborators are people who had been involved but were regretful and went to the police.
By Thursday morning 13 of the 26 suspects arrested on Tuesday had appeared before the judge in charge of the case, Isabel Conejo, and had been released on bail, with sums ranging between 30,000 and 500,000 euros. Charges include bribery or accepting bribes, influence peddling, money laundering, embezzlement and fraud.
Police find 600,000 at estate agency
As well as the tons of paperwork and computers confiscated during the almost 40 searches carried out in relation to the ‘Astapa’
investigation, police have also seized various sums of money. The most significant of these was the 600,000 euros in cash found on the premises of a small real estate agency located in a central street of Estepona.
Police have also discovered large sums of money in bank accounts, some of these abroad, linked to some of the suspects arrested.

Moroccan woman who was being held against her will in a house in Estepona was rescued by police on Wednesday, after she managed to contact a friend in Ciudad Real through an Internet web site. She said she was being held by a man and a woman, and had been there for some days.Police in Ciudad Real passed the information onto Estepona, and the 23 year old was found in a property near the marina on Monday, two days after the kidnap was reported to police in Ciudad Real.Four arrests were made – the two who were holding the woman, and two Moroccan immigrants who were found to be in the country illegally. Europa Press said the property was used as a safe house for illegal immigrants who came into Spain on false documentation.

Murdered gangland figure Paddy Doyle was shot dead in Spain after falling foul of an international drugs gang.Investigators are satisfied the shooting on the Costa del Sol was linked to his drugs activities there rather than his role in a deadly feud at home.
Police hunting Doyle's killers yesterday arrested seven men after seizing an €8m cocaine shipment in Estepona
Patrick Doyle, a drug dealer from Dublin,the man who was driving the car he was in when he was shot at is Gary Hutch, also from Ireland. RTE News in Ireland gave the name of a third man who was in the rear passenger seat of their BMW jeep as Freddie Thompson, a criminal from Dublin who is now being sought by police.
Police investigating the murder have meanwhile seized more than 100 kilos of cocaine which was found hidden in a furniture lorry near Estepona. The central government delegate for Andalucía, Juan José López Garzón, told the press on Tuesday that seven people are in custody, six from Britain and the seventh from Ireland. He said one is a juvenile.Police are investigating a possible link between the killing on Monday and the seven people arrested after 100 kg of cocaine were seized.Detectives reckon that Doyle, who has been based mainly in Spain over the past couple of years, probably clashed with other drug traffickers.
Doyle, was regarded as a "heavy" in the criminal underworld.
He was closely linked to the leader of one of the feuding gangs and was believed to have acted as an enforcer for him.
He is believed to have been involved in the murder of Noel Roche, who was shot dead in the front passenger seat of a black Mondeo car by members of the rival faction near the Yacht pub in Clontarf, in November 2005.

Patrick Doyle from Portland Row in Dublin has died in a shooting incident in Estepona today. It happened at 2pm in Calle Mejorana in the Bel Air urbanisation in Cancelada, and National Police are still at the scene. The order to remove the body was granted at 3,20pm, and police found a four wheel drive vehicle at the scene with five gunshots, four in the windscreen and one in the front passenger door.
The victim, aged 25-30 was travelling in the passenger seat according to a witness at the scene who said the four wheel drive was fired at by another car. The driver lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a lamppost. When the passenger got out of the four wheel drive, he was shot twice in the head.
There have been no arrests in the case as yet. A suspected Irish drug dealer was shot dead Monday near the southern Spanish resort town of Estepona, police said.
The man, aged 25 to 30, was a passenger in a four-wheel-drive vehicle when it was ambushed by at least one gunman in another car that pulled alongside, according to a police detective in Dublin, Ireland.
An estimated four shots were fired into the windshield and one through a side door. When the car stopped and the passenger got out, he was shot at least two times in the head at close range, the officer said.The dead man is believed to be involved in the feuding gangs in the Crumlin / Drimnagh area of Dublin.Irish drug gangs have been blamed for the brutal murder.