Migration
The maritime rescue service says a baby has died despite efforts by rescuers to save it after a small boat carrying migrants sunk in the Med. The death came as over 500 others were rescued.
The service said yesterday that the bottom of the rubber boat gave out, tossing 56 migrants into the water when its rescue craft reached it on Saturday east of the Strait of Gibraltar.
Rescue workers were able to save 55 men, women and children, but could not resuscitate the baby.
In all, Spanish rescue workers saved 520 people trying to cross from North Africa to Spain on Saturday. In addition, one boat with 70 migrants arrived on the Canary Islands.
Boat Ban
The government is moving to ban the high-speed semi-inflatable boats used by traffickers to bring both drugs and migrants across the Strait of Gibraltar.
Police have identified groups of African migrants arriving in the rubber inflatable boats, known as RIB’s or “narcoboats,” which have previously been used to ship marijuana resin, or hash, from Morocco.
A Government spokeswoman announced Friday the boat ban will be passed as a decree rather than as a law, shortening procedures for its approval by parliament.
Such boats can make it across the Strait of Gibraltar in less than an hour. They are one of the reasons the Western Mediterranean route has become migrants’ main entry point into Europe this year.
Pirate TV
A pirate television distribution company with close to half a million users has been dismantled in Formentera de Segura in the Southern Costa Blanca by the Guardia Civil.
Three British men have been arrested for allegedly committing crimes including tax fraud, social security fraud, money laundering, misappropriation of property and belonging to a criminal gang.
The three had set up a digital television platform through which they fraudulently facilitated channels that would normally have to be paid for to foreign clients throughout the Vega Baja.
The gang consisted of a satellite dish installer and a computer expert .. they were able to decipher the encrypted codes on the tv channels so that the subscribers, who each paid 25 euro a month, could watch any channel of their choice.
Shooting
A Man was shot in the head and stomach while dining at a restaurant in Torremolinos on Saturday.
The victim was apparently shot several times in front of other diners on the Playamar seafront.
Witnesses said paramedics were unable to revive him.
The gunman fled the scene in a white getaway vehicle driven by an accomplice.
There are suggestions that the shooting could be connected with the settling of scores between crime gangs that has seen several shootings, kidnappings and stabbings on the Costa del Sol this summer.