State-Of-The-Art New Hospital in Malaga Could Be a Reality by 2024
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FREE COPY THE NEWSPAPER FOR “Marbella FC is SOUTHERN SPAIN like a family to me. Official market leader Audited by PGD/OJD It’s not for sale” February 23rd to March 1st 2018 www.surinenglish.com Club owner Alexander Grinberg confirmed his commitment to News 2 What To Do 41 Comment 20 Sport 46 club after his release Lifestyle 22 My Home 51 Health & Beauty 32 Classified 54 from prison P48 in English Food & Drink 38 Pastimes 60 Justice in dead- ON THE DRUGS ROUTE IN LA LÍNEA man photo-hoax Recent events have highlighted the town’s blackmail on growing trafficking problem SPECIAL REPORT P2-4 Marbella woman Five men are jailed for trying to con the German national out of one million euros by falsely accusing her of killing her ex-partner The victim got as far as handing over 60,000 euros in the clever scheme that used posed photos of the for- mer husband supposedly dead from a murderous attack. The ex-partner has still not been traced. P6 Sardine ‘espetos’ to go forward for Unesco status. The iconic culinary tradition could become protected P40 Centre Pompidou renews its commitment to Malaga. The French A ‘punto’, or lookout, guards the access to a hidden street in El Zabal, with Gibraltar in the distance. :: LUIS MORET museum will stay in the city until 2025 P14 Five decades of ministry in Fuengirola. St Andrew’s State-of-the-art new hospital in Chaplaincy in Los Boliches is celebrating its 50th Malaga could be a reality by 2024 birthday P12 The Andalusian Health authority ap- bed hospital behind the city’s exist- The Health authority has approved proved plans for a new hospital in ing Materno hospital was given offi- plans for a new hospital but must first Malaga on Monday and is hopeful it cial approval by regional Health min- will be open for public use by 2024. ister Marina Álvarez, who must now negotiate the use of the land The proposal put forward by a panel negotiate the use of the land with the of healthcare experts for a new 800- provincial authorities. P32-33 SPORT Experience the Spain’s athletes make history in the Winter vibrant Hispanic Olympic Games, heart of the returning with a record Americas two bronze medals P49 Chris Froome’s season Andrew Forbes takes us off to a bad start with a to the thriving cultural tenth-place finish in the hub that is Miami for this Vuelta a Andalucía, won month’s Travel special The Miami skyline. :: KIKOR.COM GMCVB.COM by Tim Wellens P8 P28-31 22222222 February 23rd to March 1st 2018 NEWS SUR IN ENGLISH A hole in the border fence between La Línea and Gibraltar, used for tobacco smuggling :: L. MORET :: SUSANA ZAMORA t is early morning in La Línea de la Concepción. The air is clear and the African coast is visible on the hori- zon. On this side of the I Strait, hundreds of vehicles line up in Avenida Príncipe de As- turias to cross the border to Gibral- tar, where about 10,000 local peo- ple go to work every day. Others cross on foot. In Calle Real, in the town centre, some of the shops are beginning to open. However, La Línea’s other econ- omy, tobacco smuggling and drug trafficking, is also waking up. These activities are becoming increas- ingly common in a municipality whose development is conditioned by its proximity to Morocco, the biggest producer of hashish in the world, and its economic depend- ence on Gibraltar, now under threat La Línea - on the line from Brexit. In the past year, the mafia groups have become more violent. They now confront the security forces Drug trafficking is rife in this town, which is reliant on over packages of drugs, they re- cently attacked the local hospital Gibraltar and lacks opportunities, and the authorities are calling to rescue a member of their gang who had been arrested and they desperately for more police officers to help them cope with harassed a female judge in the street just because they felt like it. This growing violence from the mafia groups is the law of the strongest. They are fully aware that La Línea lacks police resources, but in addition ‘aguadores’, take up their positions moment, from the moment we always in place so they can give an hashish arrive and the police chase they can count on the silence of a mid-morning to spot anything un- leave the headquarters until we re- immediate warning if necessary. traffickers on almost a daily basis, community which they enable to usual, and pass information about turn. We can’t work like this,” says Many of them ride motorcycles. amid the fishing boats and local earn a living. With 35 per cent un- every police patrol that passes Alberto (not his real name), a “They love Yamahas. There are residents walking along the sea- employment, part of the local popu- through the area. This is their eve- Guardia Civil officer with 20 years’ about 50 of them in strategic po- front promenade. lation finds smuggling to be a lu- ryday work, helping to ensure that experience. sitions. Look, some of them are crative way of life in the absence nobody stops a haul being unloaded Strangers to La Línea may not over there,” says Alberto, pointing Creating alarm of other opportunities. from a boat, and they can earn 1,000 notice the lookouts, but their ‘uni- towards one of the bars, where The other side of the road from the Many of these collaborators op- euros a day. forms’ give them away: Adidas or there is a constant coming and go- beach, which ought to be an envi- erate in the Levante district, where “They have us marked. They Nike tracksuit; bag on the hip and ing. It is right opposite La Atunara able location, is lined with old fish- the lookouts, known as ‘puntos’ or know exactly where we are at every phone in a pocket with the earpiece beach, where boats loaded with ermen’s cottages. The police fre- Xxx xxx xxx xxx February 23rd to March 1st 2018 3 SUR IN ENGLISH NEWS SMUGGLING STATISTICS DANGEROUS WORK of of Guardia Civil officers are based in the headquarters in 325 Cadiz and Algeciras. million euros a year are defrau- ded from the State coffers be- Hierarchy cause of the smuggling carried The ‘army’ of collaborators out by over 30 mafia groups in with the drug mafias include La Línea. ‘aguadores’ (informers) who April 2017. On the Tonelero earn between 1,000 and beach, seven National Police 2,000 euros; ‘paqueteros’ and Guardia Civil officers (they unload drugs from a were attacked by over 100 2,200 boat in less than four minutes) people when they were trying National Police officers are who earn between 2,000 and to seize a haul of drugs. The assigned to Cadiz province, 3,000 euros, and those who crowd started by hurling in- half of them in the Campo de pilot the launches and drive sults and then threw rocks Gibraltar. Another 25 per cent the 4x4s, who earn 30,000 and bricks. The result? Three are needed. A similar number euros. officers were slightly injured, the windows of two patrol An metal gate keeps police out of their boat store. :: L. MORET cars were broken, two people were arrested and the drugs disappeared. This incident member of Los Castañitas clan who off new ones grow,” says Juan was a turning point in the had been arrested and taken for Franco, who complains that the gov- modus operandi of the mafias treatment for an injury. ernment has “abandoned” La Línea. in La Línea. Their modus operandi caused “We need more security. We June 2017. A Local Police considerable alarm. They didn’t need a special plan for this area officer in La Línea de la Con- need to try very hard, because the which involves all the administra- cepción died after being acci- hospital can be easily accessed and tions. It is as if to have a clean and dentally run over by the poli- there are hardly any controls over beautiful Costa del Sol, there has ce van in which he had been entry. There was an immediate re- to be a sewer and it’s been decided travelling. He and his collea- action to the attack. “The very next that La Línea should be that sewer,” gues were chasing a tobacco day, we went from having three he says. smuggler who fled after be- guards on each shift to eight,” says To the astonishment of the ing ordered to stop. a security guard from a private firm, whole country, the attack on the February 2018. A well-known The house on the right had one of the hidden radars. :: L. M. standing in front of the entrance hospital was followed by another trafficker from Galicia, Sito to the Emergency Department. unprecedented episode when about Miñanco, was arrested in Al- Sophisticated radar ged by solar panels, they con- Many local people are wonder- 40 drug traffickers, many of whom geciras in an operation in One of the most important sisted of two antennae which ing what will happen next, bear- had been involved in the hospital which two officers from the operations carried out recently enabled the drug traffickers to ing in mind the impunity with assault, surrounded and harassed GEO squad were injured. He in La Línea de la Concepción know exactly where the patrol which the drug traffickers act.