Interesting article that appeared in the Sur in English this week:
The Costa del Sol has long been referred to as the “Costa del Crime” but the authorities have reason to believe that fugitives from the British justice still like to hide out in this area.
In order to alert the thousands of British expatriates in southern Spain of the possibility that their nextdoor neighbour being a wanted criminal, the UK’s crime-fighting charity, Crimestoppers, has launched “Operation Capture”. The association hopes to gain the collaboration of local residents in its search for suspects in a number of cases ranging from murder and kidnapping, to drugs trafficking and fraud.
During the launch of the campaign on Tuesday, the director of Crimestoppers, Dave Cording, explained that the Costa del Sol has “traditionally” been an area chosen by fugitives and that they believed that “the majority (of the most wanted suspects) are here”. Nevertheless Cording added that the suspects have “most probably changed their identity and their appearance”.
“Operation Capture” has been set up with the collaboration of both the Spanish and British police and a special Spanish freephone number (900555111) has been established to take the calls from residents or holidaymakers in Spain.
Anonymity
The calls will be taken in the UK by Crimestoppers call operators and the association stresses that it guarantees the anonymity of callers. “We don’t want to know who you are, just what you know”, says their website.
During Tuesday’s launch, Spain’s head of Citizen Safety, Mariano Gutiérrez, admitted that “it is possible” that the criminals are on the Costa del Sol, but that the authorities have no information to confirm it, “otherwise they would have been arrested”.
Meanwhile, Rachel James, First Secretary of the British Embassy in Madrid stressed that the fight against crime was a priority for the British Government and the Costa del Sol is an area that the British love.
The Crimestoppers campaign in the UK has been extremely successful, having received more than 800,000 calls since it began in 1988, which have resulted in over 70,000 arrests. Callers are not required to reveal their name, make a statement or appear in court and calls are not recorded or traced.
More information
Calling from Spain:
Crimestoppers Freephone: 900 555 111.
Website:
www.crimestoppers-uk.org