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LOCAL NEWS - MONDAY 12 MARCH 2012

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Mark Nolan / 2012-03-11 20:24:35

GRAN ALACANT FRAUDSTERS LOCKED UP

The Guardia Civil has dismantled a criminal organisation based in Gran Alacant, believed to be responsible for the distribution of counterfeit money and credit card cloning.

A raid on a house in the town resulted in the investigators finding 200,000 euro worth of fake 50 and 100 euro notes. Eight people, of Eastern European and Spanish nationality, were subsequently arrested. 

It is believed that the gang may have been operating since 2004 and could well have introduced up to one and a half million euro per year into the financial network, mostly by exchanging the fake notes for change in retail premises.

ORIHUELA DEFENDS LICENSING MOVES

The councillor for town planning in Orihuela, Antonio Zapata, has been praising the tightening of licensing across the municipality, showing how the move has resulted in more applications than last year and an easier process for completion.

License applications for business had increased from 15 the first two months of 2011, to 27 this year. Licenses for vehicles to access property increased from 11 to 30 in the same period and environmental licenses had increased from 25 applications in the first two months of last year to 45 in 2012.

This has resulted in a smoother transition for license applications as well as an increase in municipal funds.

TORREVIEJA TO AIRPORT BUS PUT TO TENDER

The transport department of the Valencia government has announced that it will put the Torrevieja to Alicante airport bus service out to tender, looking at a company to provide the service at a maximum of 285,000 euro per year.

The service had been operating on a trial basis since May of last year, gaining an extension in September. Not without problems, the service was expected to carry 100,000 passengers a year on the express service between the two points, although figures have been much lower than this.

The permanent move is hoped to form part of an action plan to crack down on illegal taxis operating in the area, which the absence of a bus service only exaggerated.

ORANGE THIEVES ARRESTED

Three men and a woman, aged between 18 and 26, have been arrested in the Alicante town of Alzira, accused of stealing 32 tons of oranges from a farm.

Posing as official fruit pickers, the gang had loaded a van and two cars with the stolen fruit, valued at nearly seven thousand euro.

BUSY WEEKEND FOR FIRE FIGHTERS

Around 100 people were evacuated from a tower block in Villajoyosa this weekend, when a fire started to take hold in an apartment on the fifth floor of the 27 storey high rise. There were no serious injuries in the fire but 5 people were treated for the effects of smoke inhalation.

Also, a truck caught fire in a warehouse on the N340 road near the Alicante IFA exhibition centre, causing a large plume of smoke to be visible for many miles. 

Meanwhile, an unoccupied house on the Torreta urbanisation of Torrevieja caught fire, but the flames were quickly extinguished amid fears that the fire may spread to neighbouring properties.