Carers Arrested
A couple accused of drugging and locking up elderly foreigners in a ‘House of Horrors’ so they could steal their savings have been arrested in Spain.
The pair, said to be of German-Cuban origin, were caught after 101-year-old German woman died suddenly after being left in the couple’s care.
Police discovered that another four people had died while the couple had supposedly been looking after them.
A spokesman for the Civil Guard in Cadiz confirmed ‘Six people have been arrested and nine placed under investigation as the suspected authors of a series of crimes ranging from fraud to forgery, misappropriation and money laundering.
‘The operation led to officers tracking down an elderly German woman and removing her from the control of her ‘carers’, who had stripped her of her assets.
Franco’s Remains
The family of former military dictator Gen. Francisco Franco announced yesterday it will lodge a second appeal at the Supreme Court over the government’s plan to exhume his body.
Franco’s grandchildren said in a letter addressed to the government that the appeal was intended to block a decision taken on Feb. 15 to remove the body from the triumphalist Valley of the Fallen monument.
Valuable Ship Wreck
An anchor thought to be from the ‘most valuable shipwreck ever’ has been found off the coast of the UK.
The Merchant Royal, a vessel lost at sea during rough winds off Land’s End in Cornwall, had been carrying over £1.1 billion of treasure in today’s money.
On board at the time of its sinking was a trove 100,000 lbs of gold, 400 bars of Mexican silver and almost 500,000 ‘pieces of eight’, or Spanish dollars.
Experts say the anchor, which was brought up in a fishing vessel’s net 20 miles off the coast, matches the one used on the Merchant Royal.
Dubbed ‘the El Dorado of the seas,’ the loss of the Merchant Royal made headlines at the time, with its value back then estimated to be equivalent to one-third of the UK government’s revenue from taxes in 1641 .. she had spent three years trading with Spanish colonies in the West Indies and sailed out of Cadiz
Several salvage teams have sought to recover the wreck over the years but have so far been unsuccessful.
Valencia Fallas 2019
THE OFFICIAL program for this year’s biggest fiesta in Valencia, Fallas 2019, has been released, with the party taking place through to March 19.
This weekend will see events such as the arrival of the Moors and Christians, a night show and huge fireworks display on Saturday, and on Sunday a heritage parade through the streets, and the inauguration of the street markets on Tuesday.
Towns around the region also hold celebrations, full details of which are always available from the relevant town halls.