Juan Antonio Roca allowed to walk away from jail in Málaga on bail of one million euros.

Juan Antonio Roca, who amassed a 200-million euro fortune after allegedly awarding building licences in exchange for money, has been on remand since his arrest on March 31, 2006.
Now, magistrate Óscar Pérez will allow him to walk away from jail in Málaga on bail of one million euros.Fears persist, however, that the former chaffeur turned town planning chief will flee Spain after the state prosecutor claimed he had clandestine bank accounts in tax havens around the globe. Explaining his decision to give bail, judge Óscar Pérez said: “Disregarding the reasonable suspicion that Roca has hidden funds abroad, he has important financial interests to defend here.
“Furthermore, he has a wife and children and he has always lived in Spain.”
After Roca’s arrest in Operation Malaya, police confiscated original works of art, a helicopter and even a stud farm – all apparently amassed during his time at the town hall of the resort, which is popular with the nouveua riche of northern Europe and Russia.So far, 86 people, including councillors, constructors and even a former professional footballer, have been arrested during the Malaya investigation.

Britons with homes on the Costas are among those at risk from a £3.5 billion campaign by the environment ministry

"The state is destroying property without any concern for the law or human rights," said Mr Ortega."This will affect more than 500,000 people along the coast in Spain, of whom up to 100,000 are foreigners, including thousands of Britons. It is illegal and totally unfair. We already have 20,000 members whose homes are threatened with demolition."Announcing the plan last November, Cristina Narbona, the environment minister, attempted to placate owners by insisting: "We won't be demolishing entire developments, even if they breach the law."The latest government drive will do little to reassure homeowners in Spain who have been affected by a string of recent scandals. Local corruption and the flouting of planning laws have allowed swathes of Spanish coastline to be developed during the past decade.The owners of 4,500 illegally built homes in Marbella are still fighting in the courts to prevent them being bulldozed.In January on the Costa Almeria, Len and Helen Prior, a British couple, won widespread sympathy from the expatriate community after the home they had bought in good faith was torn down because it allegedly breached planning regulations. They are currently living in a caravan on the site of their former three-bedroom villa and have yet to receive compensation.

Britons with homes on the Costas are among those at risk from a £3.5 billion campaign by the environment ministry to restore and protect coastal areas from over-development."This is the single biggest assault on private property we have seen in the recent history of Spain," said José Ortega, a lawyer and the head of an action group launched in Madrid to challenge the Socialist government, which is using a 20-year-old law, the Ley de Costas (Coastal Law), to clear developments along 482 miles of coastline.Under the plan properties built within 550 yards of the beach could be confiscated by the state and in some cases demolished.Even homes constructed entirely legally decades ago are being targeted.
Clifford Carter, 59, recently discovered that the villa he and his Spanish wife, Maria, have owned since 1976 is under threat.Their villa is one of 75 in a seaside development on the Costa Blanca, 10 miles south of Valencia, that has now been "rezoned"."Out of the blue we received a letter... stating that the home we have owned for over 30 years had been confiscated," he said.
The couple, who spent holidays at the two-storey villa before selling their home in Croydon, south London, and retiring there four years ago, have been given permission to remain living there."Because we bought over 30 years ago we got a concession to stay in our home but our ownership has been taken away and we can't sell it even if we wanted to," he said, adding that they had hoped one day to leave the house to their two daughters. "The indication is that the house will be demolished but we haven't been told when," said the former electrical engineer.

Huelva Angry crowds shouted Asesino and hurled bottles and stones as the detainees

The first one breaking the orders from the police was the grandfather of Mari Luz, Juan José Fernandez, a fact that gave more strength to the protesters. ‘You criminal murderer, you have to pay for what you did! The prison is not enough for you!’ this was one of the various sayings directed to Santiago del Valle the confessed killer of Mari Luz.



Santiago del Valle, the man arrested in connection with the death of five year old Mari Luz Cortés, arrived at the court in Huelva shortly after 5 on Thursday afternoon, where a crowd of some 600 people had been waiting outside since the early hours of the morning. The angry crowd shouted "Asesino!"[murderer] and hurled bottles and stones as the detainees, Santiago and his sister, arrived in police vans. The security fences that were serving as a barrier between the public and the court were used like throwing weapons. The police, who had send to the place several intervention teams, were forced to move against the crowd, with shots to the air and using their batons, trying to keep the order and disband the crowd , who were, besides throwing stones, doing fires in the streets and vandalizing several parked cars.During the uproar, two Spanish journalists, who were covering the story, were slightly injured. Izidro Huete, a cameraman from Cuatro Television [Channel 4], was hit in the head with a stone and had to be carried to a hospital to receive medical treatment. As well, a journalist from the radio Onda Cero was injured in the arms, in the middle of the crowd clash.
Between the screams and pushes, the rage of the relatives and neighbours mixed with a will of provoking chaos by a group of young persons from the El Torréjon district forced the authorities to expand the perimeter of security, closing all the streets that had a connection to the court.

Mari Luz’s father, Juan José, forced his way into Santiago del Valle’s home, on the same day that Mari Luz disappeared

El Mundo reports that several people from the neighbourhood, including Mari Luz’s father, Juan José, and some of her uncles, forced their way into Santiago del Valle’s home, taking some papers on the same day that the child had vanished, knocking down the door in search of the youngster. This led the man who is now charged with the child’s murder to call the police for help. The police went to the home and initially thought it was a simple case of breaking and entering, deciding to put off making full enquires until the next day. When they returned, Santiago del Valle and his family had gone, and it was only some time later that police joined the dots in the case and realised that they were dealing with a known paedophile with a previous record.


Santiago del Valle García, the man arrested in connection with the death of five year old Mari Luz Cortés from Huelva, has been ordered to prison without bail by the judge in Instruction Court One in Huelva on charges of murder and against sexual freedom. The judge also told him that he must also serve the two years and nine month sentence handed down against him in 2006 by Penal Court One in Sevilla for abusing his own daughter.The judge also ordered prison without bail for Rosa del Valle, his sister who had also been arrested along with his wife and a brother. The wife, Isabel García, was released with charges after making her statement to the Instruction judge and is now reported to be staying outside Huelva province. Santiago and Rosa left the Huelva Provincial Court at a quarter to one this morning, bound for the jail in Huelva.Meanwhile the General Council for Judicial Power (CGPJ), the body which oversees the judiciary in Spain has opened an investigation as to why the alleged killer of Mari Luz had not served a single day in jail, despite two prison sentences against him. The latest was the firm 2 year 9 month sentence handed down against him by Penal Court One in Sevilla for the sexual abuse of his own five year old daughter. There was a second earlier sentence also, for two years in jail, handed down for the sexual abuse of a nine year old girl who he surprised on the stairs of her home, which he also somehow escaped serving.
It appears the official reason was that he was ‘whereabouts unknown' and had also appealed against the second sentence which had allowed him to avoid being placed inside. He had claimed that it was a gymnastics teacher who had abused his daughter, and not him, presenting a fake medical report at the time to support his case.

The court documents from Sevilla at the time make dramatic reading. Público quotes them as saying ‘On several occasions the accused, dropping his trousers, would make his daughter touch his member with her hands, and on other occasions he would masturbate while he touched her genital region. The mother was often present while this took place, and despite the opposition of the child who complained to her father that it hurt, never did anything to stop it taking place’. The court documents note that the mother, Isabel García, has an I.Q. of only 47, and she was clearly under the manipulative influence of her husband. The Sevilla court documents also indicate that Santiago del Valle suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, but also that the judge considered that when he abused his daughter he knew exactly what he was doing. The couple’s two daughters, now aged 9 and 15, are in the care of foster families. There is also a third case of a 13 year old girl in Gijón, against whom he was handed down a distancing order after he had been chatting to her on the internet and proposed sexual relations. The girl’s mother discovered the plan and informed the police in that case.The Government Delegate for Andalucía, Juan José López Garzón, commented that it was not for the police or the government to comment on the situation, and he was not going to make a judgement. He called for calm from the local population. However López Garzón did not deny that there was a search and capture order in place against Santiago del Valle since 2006. It appears that the Police investigators into the Mari Luz case knew nothing of this however, and were unaware that he lived less than 100 metres away from where she disappeared. However the local residents of this tight-knit community did know about Santiago del Valle’s past, and a few hours after Mari Luz vanished they had informed the missing girl’s parents.

The parents of Mari Luz suspected this man from the first moment. Juan José Cortés, said this morning: “We know that it is him, we are sure, and this

The parents of Mari Luz suspected this man from the first moment. Juan José Cortés, said this morning: “We know that it is him, we are sure, and this is no surprise to me”One of the suspects of the death of Mari Luz confessed today to the Spanish police that the girl died in an accident, falling down the stairs. Santiago del Valle García also said that the girl went with him to his house willingly. The man is one of three neighbours of the Cortés family detained yesterday in the afternoon by the Spanish police and he had already a previous record as a paedophile.His wife, Isabel García, has also been arrested, although initially there is no suspicion that she has intervened in the actions, but only to interrogate her. This man was the number one suspect of the homicide since the first moment, mainly because the little girl was last seen alive while walking in front of his house, in the same neighbourhood, El Torrejon, where she resided with her family. Mari Luz disappeared on January 13, when she went to buy sweets at a kiosk. The sister of the suspect was freed meantime. The couple keeps on being questioned.
The principal suspect of the death of Mari Luz lived a few meters away from the Cortés family. The man went away from the district the following day after the disappearance of the child, with fear of retaliations. The Police, later on, found and questioned Santiago in Granada. He was detained some days later after the arrest, but was released at that time since there was no sufficient proof to indict him.
The police arrested him again yesterday in Pajaroncillo, a village of 100 inhabitants in the hills of Cuenca, hundreds of kilometres away of Huelva, together with his wife, Isabel, and sister. This arrest was done as a result of new evidence arising from the autopsy carried out on Mari Luz Cortés. He had travelled there, to receive his monthly pension, according to police sources. After his initial statement, during which he confessed to the crime, he now assures that the child "fell" and accidentally died. Frightened and with fear of being incriminated, he launched Mari Luz body to the river Huelva.
The 52-year-old man, Santiago del Valle García, had already been arrested for paedophilia and sexual abuses, including to one of his daughters, which was the motive why a judge had issued an order to keep the child at a distance from her father, to prevent him from harassing her again, according to police sources. The Spanish authorities suspect that the cause of the crime has a sexual nature. In 2002, Santiago was convicted by a court in Sevilla of continued sexual abuse against his own daughter, he tried to accuse the gymnastics teacher of abusing his 5 year old daughter and claimed compensations of 60.100 euros.He was condemned to 2 years and 9 months of imprisonment. In a later audience in the year of 2006, a judge considered that Santiago suffered 75% of paranoid schizophrenia and that his wife, Isabel suffered 65%. They children, a girl who has now 15 and a 9 year old boy, were taken from their custody and were sent to a 'foster' care family.

Algerian gang based in Malaga

Suspects are thought to be responsible for more than 300 crimes, including robberies with violence at domestic properties, document falsification, drug trafficking, crimes using stolen credit cards and conspiracy. The Guardia targeted the suspects by studying documentation seized in several raids. The gang was identified as being made up of 14 Algerians, six Spanish, Four Morrocans and one French person. The gang was divided into three cells directed by an Algerian head based in Malaga. In and around Cieza, in Murcia, the Guardia Civil carried out three operations which resulted in the recent arrest of five people thought to be involved in 21 robberies with violence at homes. A major operation took place in Cartagena recently when some 40 officers of the National Police swarmed the streets of the suburb of Lo Campana in an anti-drugs operation targeted at three families said to be drug traffickers in control of a large part of the illegal market. The three families are said to have cooperated closely and offered drugs on a menu system with fixed prices.