Taxi Strikes
Striking Spanish taxi drivers demanding more regulations for app-based ride-hailing services are blocking access to a trade exhibition center in Madrid where a major tourism fair begins today.
Riot police have been deployed as the drivers, many wearing the yellow traffic safety vests used by protesters in neighboring France, burn tires and block traffic on a highway circling the capital.
The drivers are demanding regional authorities in Madrid find a solution like the one offered yesterday in Barcelona that would force users of apps like Uber and Cabify to contract rides one hour in advance.
The web-based companies are threatening to cease operations in Barcelona, while taxi drivers’ unions are discussing today whether to accept the terms.
Previous protests have forced regulatory changes, but Spanish cab drivers consider those insufficient.
Wolf Pack Gang
Prosecutors have tabled another sex crime charge against four men calling themselves “The Wolf Pack” who assaulted a young woman at the Pamplona bull-running festival in 2016.
In a controversial ruling, a court last year gave nine-year prison sentences to the men for sexually assaulting the 18-year-old in a doorway, but cleared them of rape because of a lack of physical violence.
The case gained notoriety amid the global #MeToo movement and brought calls for changes to Spain’s rape law.
In the new case, the Andalusia regional prosecutor’s office said it was seeking a seven-year prison sentence for sexual assault and other crimes suspected to have been committed in Pozoblanco, in southern Spain two months earlier.
Evidence for that was found against four of the five men being investigated over the case at the San Fermin festival in the northern city of Pamplona.
Investigators found a video on the cellphone of one of the accused, in which a woman appeared unconscious while men were abusing her inside a car after a night of partying.
The woman was notified about the video and the new case opened.
Despite the original ruling against them, the men were released on bail in June last year on a legal technicality that says no one can be held for more than two years without a definitive sentence.
Drug Find
Portuguese police say they have discovered 430 kilograms of cocaine concealed inside a banana shipment from Latin America.
Police yesterday said the highly pure cocaine that was on its way to a gang in Spain had a street value of around 15 million euros.
An Portuguese officer told reporters the 1-kilo packets of cocaine were hidden beneath bananas that were packed into boxes inside two shipping containers.
He said they were acting on a tip-off from Spanish police when they found the cocaine Jan. 16.
Spanish police said they believe Galician and Colombian gangs based in Spain brought the drug from Ecuador.
Spanish police arrested eight people from Spain, Colombia and Ecuador.