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15TH - 21ST SEPTEMBER 2020 - EDITION 856
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18 arrested for Catral kidnap and torture See Main Advert on page 31
Guardia Civil have made a total of 18 arrests across the Vega Baja in relation to an alleged kidnapping and torture which took place in Catral. The 18 are purported to belong to a gang of known drug traffickers. The victim is
believed to have acted as an intermediary for a drug deal that went wrong – bales of hashish which turned out to be clay. The gang is alleged to have paid out almost a quarter of a million euro for what they believed to be 90 kilos of drugs. When gang members opened the packages, they discovered that they had been duped and it is alleged they proceeded to kidnap the victim as revenge. Police sources say that the man was held for a whole night at a house in Catral. There, he was tied to a chair and was subjected to torture until he was able to make his escape when his captors left him alone for a few minutes. The injuries sustained by the man during his ordeal were so severe that he had to be hospitalised for several days.
Guardia Civil had been investigating this particular gang of drug traffickers since April. The kidnapping forced the investigation into the drug trafficking to be temporarily set aside in order to focus on protecting the victim and locating and detaining the alleged perpetrators. For several days, the Guardia Civil mounted an intensive surveillance operation which culminated in the gradual detention of the alleged participants in the kidnapping. Each of them had very specific functions for the confinement of the victim: locating and watching the victim’s house, the actual execution of the kidnapping, the transfer of the victim to Catral and the physical attacks on the victim while he was being held. Continued on page 2
SEE PAGE 10