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Olive Press Podcast Ep 3 - Costa del crime, pension time bomb and have they found Maddie?
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Jun 16, 2025
Caroline, Walt and Jon return for the third episode of the Olive Press Podcast, tackling the big expat topics of the week. This time the team have to confront the uncomfortable reality of drug-trafficking mafias on the Costa del Sol, the incoming dangers for expat retirees who've invested their pensions in offshore funds, and Jon's recent expedition to Portugal for yet another hunt for Maddeleine McCann. There's also a host of other topics covered in the week's news that might have missed your radar. Check it out! Follow us on Spotify or Apple Podcasts and leave a review if you enjoy the show. The Olive Press podcast is for British and English-speaking expats in Spain, curious Spaniards, and anyone interested in the clash of cultures, crime, and politics shaping modern Spain. Hosted by Caroline Lips and joined by Olive Press publisher Jon Clarke and digital editor Walt Finch, each week they dive into breaking stories, longform investigations, and in-depth interviews with local residents, police, and political figures.
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0:00
a a hitman came in with face covered very professional stalked up to them shot one of them dead It's a scan
0:07
Basically people tell me this is a big ticking time bomb and it's about to come out There's many more just like CWM and
0:12
they're all doing the same thing And then one of the German detectives comes out with a crate of beer that he hands
0:19
to everyone and they are clearly looking like they're celebrating something
0:26
The rest is Spain Don't forget to subscribe to the rest of
0:31
Spain on YouTube Spotify and Apple podcasts Welcome to the Olive Press the
0:37
rest of Spain podcast brought to you by Stacial Expat where we discuss the news that matters to expats in Spain I'm here
0:44
with John Clark editor of Olive Press and Walt Finch digital editor And today
0:50
we're going to talk about all the issues that are in the paper this week So John good afternoon Are we going to start
0:56
with your little weekend trip to Athera Oh well you know John what happens in AA stays in Athera so I couldn't possibly
1:03
comment there but yeah had a great time in AA Thank you But is it is it as buzzy now as it's always been Is it I mean is
1:09
the shine wearing off in a is there a chance that Marba or other places you know Morca or Ayan Nappa could take over
1:16
Is it Well for me it was very shiny and very exciting because I'd never been to Athera before So you know I can't really
1:22
comment um whether it's lost its shine but for me yeah it was buzzing lots of
1:27
people there and it was only the end of May so it's beautiful island right You got good weather Yeah gorgeous weather
1:34
It's beautiful island really friendly people It was great And there was absolutely no anti-ourism
1:40
That's good I I mean is the one of the thing about Athera it's it's so different to Morca and so different to
1:46
the mainland It's just and I was going just blown away by how stunning the beaches are and although the food's not
1:52
as good as some other places it's as an island you can't beat it the landscape really really nice Yeah Yeah definitely
2:00
and you know it's so peaceful and tranquil um which is a long way away
2:05
from this headline news which isn't very peaceful So Walt tell me about going on
2:11
in the Costa del crime the Costa Bloodbath This um so for anyone who's not been keeping up with the news This
2:18
took place what a week and a half ago Saturday night on the the night of the Champions League final So everyone's out
2:24
watching the football and there was a bar in for Wendola called Monahan's Irish bar on the beachfront Typical kind
2:31
of touristy bar People watching the football I think it's quite a chill place It's not it's not in the crazy part of Wendola
2:39
And um these two guys were sitting there and a a hitman came in with face covered
2:44
very professional stalked up to them shot one of them dead and then the CCTV footage that was released on the Spanish
2:50
news they put it on the Spanish television without any kind of blurring which caused quite a lot of shock in the
2:56
UK and you see the um the second man running through the the kind of the
3:01
inside part of the bar and the hitman following him and then you see him staggering and you he's got a white t-shirt on and you see the blood stains
3:08
were spreading It's really grim and brutal And then it didn't take long for the the news to come out that these
3:15
weren't just any two guys And obviously in Costell Solo two guys get shot dead in a bar it's always going to be mafia
3:22
related And what we learned very quickly is that one of them was um Ross Monahan
3:28
who's um I think the owner of the Monahan's bar So not a coincidence there
3:33
And the other one was um Eddie Leons Jr who's heavily connected with the Leon's
3:38
crime family from Glasgow And these are both Scottish gangsters who've been holed up in the Costell Soul for quite a
3:46
while now in theory laying low but obviously not that low because someone wanted to kill them and someone did kill
3:52
them very very professionally Um and it it's a fascinating story because anyone
3:58
living in the Costell soul will know there's shootings quite often It's not the first shooting but it's the first
4:03
time especially from a journalist perspective that we've had the names of the v of the victims and you know the
4:10
organizations they're associated with And it's it's um a wealth of information that we haven't had We've had shootings
4:16
you know every two or three weeks to be honest Yeah it was immediate that we got the names almost immediately right And I think what happened is either the police
4:22
or the um I think more likely the figures in Glasgow leaked the information to the the press in Glasgow
4:28
the Glasgow son or the Glasggo record and they wanted to get it out there And then suddenly from having many years of
4:36
of quite dry spell in terms of reporting on crime in the cost of soul although it's always been there it's never died
4:41
down We just didn't have the names or the faces or the uh the story lines for it Not since the Kahans you know kind of
4:47
10 years ago Um now suddenly it's it's back You know it never never really went away but now it's back Who are the Lions
4:54
family So you got the Lions and the Daniels families Um and they they
5:01
traffic and coke and they associate all these cocaine trafficking gangs around
5:08
Europe They all work with each other So there's no such thing as like an isolated one They all both have connections with the Kinahans Kinhans
5:15
being the most kind of household name And they also they would work with um uh
5:20
mafias from Holland from Italy They all Albanian and then the Balkcon is also a big source of um these kinds of criminal
5:28
groups and it's just these were guys from from Glasgow And so the um the assumption was that this was a Glasgow
5:34
crime war brought to the streets of Wola This is the first sort of um reporting
5:40
Um so should we be scared now wandering the streets of the Costadel Soul I think
5:46
if you're not trafficking drugs or even if you are trafficking drugs but you're not owing debts or you're not
5:54
getting yourself into trouble I think you're fine So you think that the chance of being caught in crossfires pretty
6:00
small given I suppose this guy was so they were so clearly targeted right I mean the shooter was I mean to get two
6:07
guys shot them shoot them both dead in one go That's that's remarkable Yeah So one one thing they're saying many people
6:13
assuming that this killer was brought in from Glasgow um and is part of a Glasgow
6:18
organized crime hit But now the police the police in Scotland have said we actually don't see any evidence the the
6:24
special branch to um support that theory And I think the current thinking among sort of informed sources
6:31
is that he's a the killer who was kind of military prof in in skill and precision was based here And there's
6:38
there's many many guns for hire Could be South American could be could be Balkans you know you're not sure of of hired
6:44
killers if you want them Wasn't there like a huge contract on his head Yeah we did hear this We don't know this
6:49
ourselves but the rumor is that um Monahan was the target and Leon's although having his name the same name
6:55
as the Leon's crime family probably been closer into it at least by by blood wasn't the target they were after
7:01
Monahan um who owed 200 No there's the contract out on him for 250k
7:08
That's a lot of money Yeah I don't know He must have owed someone a hell of a lot of money for that to be worthwhile And um but also he he was just sitting
7:15
in a pub you know You'd think if you're a wanted mafia kind of crook you
7:20
wouldn't sit in a pub and watching especially your own pub watching a match where everyone knows that this match is
7:26
one of the biggest match one of the biggest matches of the year So it's very slug Do you think they did it on purpose on that day to get maximum eyeballs on
7:34
it And you know that's a good question Yeah In the daylight That's a really good point I mean I I would think the
7:39
last thing they want is is the um the publicity which is why it's strange that the names have come out because the
7:45
Kinahanss clearly they they flew clo too close to the sun Um they were too well known There was a whole kind of cottage
7:52
industry Now you got podcasts you got books you got anything you want about the Kinahans And the one lesson from
7:57
being a big organized crime figure that I think they all took from that is keep a low profile So this isn't good for
8:03
them not good for anyone I don't think I I think it sounds like a story line from the BBC drama This City is Ours which I
8:10
understand they're about to make a second series and that that's based on a Liverpool crime gang and it's also based
8:16
in Marba So the first few episodes I don't know if you guys have seen it but the first few episodes are very much based in Marba and you see the famous
8:22
mount in the backdrop and of course they buy their drugs across the water in Morocco Yeah And of course a deal goes
8:28
wrong and and a shipment doesn't arrive in the docks in Liverpool A big shipment
8:33
It's I think it's probably more than 250 grand but I think it's like quite a few million that didn't arrive Next thing
8:39
the whole thing's kicked off And it's I mean I'm you know it's so well made that anyone who's interested in this should
8:44
watch it So is it based on a true story It's based on Lucy on a true story And
8:49
you know if you think of the quote this city is ours I mean who else came out with that that famous Funny you ask that
8:55
one John cuz um the other crime story in the news at the minute which is a trial um about the the Swedish mafia so it's
9:04
already gone to trial That means it's happened you know many years ago because the wheels of justice are very slow in Spain But the the figure head on trial
9:13
is a a well-known figure in the cost soul cuz he's the stepson of the mayor
9:19
of Marba Angela's Munoz So it's a very murky She's not like linked to it in any
9:25
way though is she Let's be honest I mean she's I think was it her ex her ex-husband who's now dead right Or
9:30
actual husband who husband who passed is um the father of the the guy on trial So
9:37
her stepson not her biological son but he was also uh imputed What's the word
9:43
Um indicted He was indicted Charged on the same sort of drug trafficking charges as the son Whether the mayor is
9:50
involved we would probably say she's not wouldn't we I I she's difficult to say I've known
9:56
her for a long time I think probably on balance no she's not involved Um you know could she be the first mayor in six
10:04
the last six may have all ended up in prison in Marba And I think it's the same with Esapona right Yeah I got a
10:09
sense that she she's not she's okay and she she's going to she's going to ride this one out She'll ride it out for sure
10:15
because she's been in power what 2011 for 14 years She always gets voted in no matter what happens Well it's very
10:21
interesting though that there's so much of this crime going on and and you know people who know people who know people
10:27
you know is it as bad as the press are making it out to be like the tabloid press or do you think they've taken this
10:34
story and just blown it up What's your view That's a question If you speak to people around the cost of Elon you know
10:41
you both live here Everyone has a an experience or they they everyone kind of
10:49
knows it's there but most people turn a blind eye to it or don't sort of interact with it So it's like um carbon
10:55
monoxide you know you don't really detect it you don't know it's there but it's sometimes it's there I mean geographically you can't you know we're
11:02
so obviously close to Africa aren't we and Al Jaserasport and Lalinia where I believe you live and you know you can't
11:07
so obviously we know that there's a lot of money coming down to the costel soul from the you know the purchase of drugs
11:14
and that there that's never going to go away I mean Costa Blanca isn't as bad and that's a fact it just isn't and yeah
11:21
it's one of those things you can never know for certain it's just speculation and guesswork but yeah like John says we
11:28
all know especially if who are journalists working in in the field there's a lot of drugs there's a lot of
11:33
dirty money in the economy and that money gets in everywhere you know it gets into real estate it gets and then
11:38
it gets invested elsewhere So it's it it all mingles together Um and it drives a
11:44
lot of the economy along the coast Money laundering is huge here isn't it I mean how many bars set out how many clubs how
11:50
many you know car washing places you know it's it's so fascinating isn't it How many places get burnt down for
11:57
example That's a very good one Yeah And the police never get to the bottom of it You never hear anything about it It's
12:02
just Oh there's another fire Yeah I mean the one here near here it's at Cisu
12:07
Hotel Wasn't there a body allegedly found at the bottom Right When it burnt down Which one was this There's a Belgium guy There was a fire on the You
12:14
probably drive past it every day and realize but there's a hotel called Cisu that's burnt down about a few years ago
12:19
wasn't it Yeah Yeah A few years ago And um Yeah I mean be careful what we say
12:24
about it It's a murky world But going back to the lions guy isn't that was that not where the famous monk was
12:30
living in Ferola So yeah he's got a home He actually has a villa in Fenderova and he
12:38
was spotted there I think last year and um so was Gerald Gerard Gerard Hutch
12:45
Jerry Hutch Hutch Jerry Hutch Jerry the Monk Hutch Yeah Jerry the Monk Hutch So he was the arch sort of nemesis rival of
12:50
the Kinhans back in the day They had this Kinahan Hutch feud what in 2013 to 2018 something about how long Seven
12:57
eight years more or less No I think yeah many many deaths in Spain and Ireland and I guess other places He lost his
13:02
family He lost like six or seven of his own family members there I can tell you that I think his brother
13:08
was killed a taxi driver innocent totally innocent He lost a son He lost I
13:14
mean incredibly large amount of people connected to him who were killed over the years And when he turned up living
13:19
in Fangero and he had a long beard and wore a baseball cap no one could quite believe it Yeah And you know he's he
13:25
then got extradited back to Ireland I believe he's got off the charges Yeah He his trial I think it was last year It
13:31
was within recent memory He got off uh maybe a year last spring And he's called
13:36
Jerry the Monk Hutch because he doesn't hip abstains Doesn't touch alcohol and doesn't drugs Doesn't doesn't take them
13:43
at least and um allegedly and he's um last thing I heard he was
13:48
trying to open property in Lanzerati which is obviously very stressed because of um over tourism they say and he the
13:56
story is that he was using his milgot and gains to open affordable housing for workers and and um you know the the
14:03
ordinary fellas in in Lanzerati so he's kind of giving back in some ways would you say I think he's seen as a Robin
14:09
Hood figure among some obviously many would say no he's a gangster and And last thing also he's trying to stand for
14:16
election in Dublin as a local counselor Dale I think he was standing for even like for an actual MP wasn't he I think
14:22
I think he only lost by I don't know a few hundred He was counselor and he lost So it wasn't a huge sort of position in
14:28
politics but it's the first step you know once you let them in So it's a good thing for for Ireland that he didn't get
14:34
in Agreed Yeah Totally Interesting Okay Now we're going to take a quick break
14:40
from talking about the news to hear from our sponsor
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for a policy in plain English Stay short expert is a tide agent of erggo seoros
15:11
de that's the costadel soul or should we really call it the costadel crime because another story that still
15:18
interests me well is one that we talked about a couple of weeks ago on the podcast about um the pension scams and I
15:27
believe you've got a bit more to that story tell us about that so we talked about this didn't we and um it was the
15:34
story of continental wealth management and this was a big kind pension fraud that took place based in
15:40
the Costlanca and they took in hundreds of expat retirees in Spain and a lot of them but all of them lost their pensions
15:46
or huge chunk of their pensions cuz this company CWM were investing in um
15:52
and and risky high high-risk penny shares or structured notes is what they
15:58
say not appropriate for for pensions and it was basically so that these people running the company executives could
16:04
take these fat commissions and um yeah me and John did some very good investigation this We got in touch with
16:09
the uh the chief mastermind He had a say We published the story We're very happy with it Um but I mean we gave him his
16:18
his side of the story his chance to he's never spoken before And we're talking like seven or eight years of reporting on him and his ex-wife Jod and and we
16:26
did a great job tracking down and it was great to see it in the paper this week I think um you laid down the fact that
16:31
well he obviously didn't do anything wrong did he Well yeah he so he's claiming he didn't do anything wrong and I mean he need it's we gave him we were
16:38
fair to him you know we gave him his his chance but the one thing he has said is um it wasn't me gov
16:45
is that a quote or is that no no we I a little bit but the one thing he said he
16:51
said it wasn't me it was the pension provider so this this can get a very become a very dry topic but essentially
16:57
what he's saying is CWM is just one of I don't know dozens hundreds of offshore
17:02
investment companies There's many more just like CWM and they're all doing the
17:07
same thing as well as the insurance companies that actually invest the money So these these are advisory firms This
17:14
is all according to Darren Kirby who's the the so-called mastermind He said we never touched the money and other people
17:21
said they didn't touch it but they they're held in accounts in Malta or somewhere is it So yeah it's all goes
17:26
through Molton There's the pension company in Molton He's basically blaming them And it is interesting because um
17:32
they did go to court There was a tribunal in Malta and they were they weren't found because it wasn't a a
17:38
criminal court but the uh the arbiter the financial arbiter in Malta said look you guys how can I say this You effed up
17:45
as well but I think the the uh continental wealth management they were just raking it in and living at large
17:51
off people's pensions But it's essentially what I'm getting from my news gathering is that this is a
17:58
conspiracy is a strong word but this is something a practice that goes on over hundreds of billions of of dollars or
18:04
euros or pounds worth of pension investments now throughout the offshore world It wouldn't be in the UK It
18:10
wouldn't necessarily be in Spain It's offshore It's not regulated is it Yeah Unregulated pensions And there's a
18:15
number of very well-known companies which we won't mention because we don't want to get our asses sued who are implicated in this and um quite a lot of
18:23
very powerful figures and very wealthy people who we're going to continue digging into it But um these guys and
18:29
there's also I do understand there's many or at least a number of certain
18:34
trials taking place in the aisle of man which is another offshore jurisdiction and there's one verdict coming out I
18:41
think tomorrow Tuesday this week coming it's called the signature trial and this is relating to these giant giant pension
18:49
companies investors that take care of the the life savings the retirement
18:54
savings of thousands or I don't know tens thousands hundreds of thousands of of British people and other nationalities I would imagine they lose
19:01
their money or they they take a big haircut on their pensions because these these investors these wealthy kind of
19:06
pension operators they are deliberately choosing pensions or sorry investment
19:12
vehicles they they say that are not in the interest of their clients but pay out the biggest commissions And it's an
19:18
it's a scam Basically people are telling me this is a big ticking time bomb and it's about to come out I mean he says here I I would take a liet to test
19:25
anywhere in the world to prove this wasn't fraud but when we first spoke to him this is of course the the fuller
19:31
interview but when we first spoke to him he said 25 to 35 million euros was taken from I believe a,000 or was it 998
19:39
victims and that money has just vanished has it What he says Yeah So the the it's
19:44
not that the um the the pension pots have been completely just robbed and put in someone's pocket but they're put in
19:50
investments that then collapse So it's like if you if you buy Bitcoin and Bitcoin goes down So the people's inventions lost pensions sorry were lost
19:57
but these guys all profited from 8% 15% commission Scandalous Yeah So they weren't doing due diligence
20:04
They weren't using due care with the people's money They were just getting commission Due diligence So he's saying
20:10
that no one did including himself He did admit that CWM didn't do the due diligence And I said "Well is that
20:16
negligent or is it criminal criminal fraud?" And he's like "Ah you know apple potato potato you know and I think we
20:22
can mention the these guys here because we put them in here We've also got Patrick uh and Dawn Kirby We've also got
20:28
Anthony DS Steven Ward someone called Dean Stoddill Neil Haway and others
20:33
these these guys if you ever come across them and you know I really hope that our readers don't but or or watchers or
20:39
viewers listeners sorry do but if you come across them be very very careful
20:44
and be aware that you know with your pension just use reputable decent companies that are set up regulated
20:50
regulated that's the critical word but thing is everyone says they are regulated these guys said we were regulated through um a network like by
20:58
proxy so you can easily you know the sweet sweet talking charmers they can double check they can always get double
21:04
check everything right I mean is it like time share I mean do you feel like this is a sort of time share type scam all
21:09
over again From what I'm hearing this is big I mean hundreds of millions So hundreds of billions Hundreds of
21:15
billions Hundreds of billions Interestingly the time share thing you know gold Did you watch gold on the BBC
21:21
about um I know of it I never watched it Yeah Well that that's about to be series 2 and it's all about time share and it's
21:26
all set in Spain It's all set in Tennere Great So that that's going to be really interesting Yeah The last one to touch
21:34
on this Um couple of podcasts ago we talked about Jod Yes So um now we know
21:39
she's not in jail because the whole appeals process is very lengthy and so that buys the time and um what do we
21:46
hear about Jodie John Well allegedly she's she's not running her bar restaurant at the moment but again I
21:52
can't say that I shouldn't say I just said it but I haven't Allegedly Allegedly We we need to go and check out
21:59
is she still running this place Is she has she in the words of someone done a runner allegedly her house her villa is
22:05
all shut up all the blinds down doesn't look very because they I do understand a
22:10
lawyer told me that um when they gave the the the guilty verdict they didn't take a passport okay that's strange put
22:18
it all together they know what they're doing Spanish justice I don't know I think often they they just want people
22:23
to run like if you're a foreigner they don't want you in their jails they have you just exact because she's posted quite a large bail though perhaps you
22:30
once you're guilty you go to jail You can't post a bail So there's no benefit to the the authorities here to to let
22:36
her do a runner I I think because I mean we could look at many many other expat
22:42
sort of criminal convicts over the years I've been in the Costell Soul who disappeared and never went to jail Um
22:48
and there's a certain pattern to it I don't know I wouldn't want to say that they let him go deliberately but you
22:54
know it seems to happen Wow Okay So that is interesting Um and I can't do this
23:02
podcast for this week's news without talking about the big story Over to you John You've even written a book about
23:09
Maggie McCann and what happened And you went to Portugal I think it was last week and you saw what was going on with
23:16
this hunt for any evidence about Meline Macan So tell us is there any hope there
23:23
You know what's going on It's good good question Caroline And I've been I don't know this could be the 20th time I've
23:29
been over there and I've definitely spent three four five months over there staying on the Algav and trying to
23:35
investigate this case I don't know if listeners know but I was the first journalist there first national
23:41
newspaper journalist there on May the 4th in 2007 and I got an early morning
23:46
phone call and from the Daily Mail foreign desk and just said look can you go to the Algav And I was half I was
23:51
asleep said you know why He said oh there's a girl gone little girl gone missing I'm like "Really You want me to
23:57
go all just get in the car and go?" So I got in the car and drove and arrived around 9:30 10:00 in Portuguese time
24:04
It's an hour's difference There was almost no one there And suddenly bit by bit pieced together this poor little
24:10
girl had vanished and literally vanished into thin air And so I got kind of dragged into this case unwittingly And
24:18
you know I just got kind of sucked in And it's fascinating in terms of all the characters that have been involved And
24:24
it it was actually nearly 13 it was 13 years later that in 2020 that they
24:29
finally announced German police that they had a suspect a guy called Christian Brookner And they said "Look
24:35
this guy was there." They placed him in the the resort at the time He said he's a really dangerous sex offender He's a
24:41
pedophile He's got convictions And we know that he was in the resort that night He had a half an hour phone call
24:47
just before she went missing He also has a track record along his arm for burglaries and robberies They know that
24:53
he's been in and out of apartments including in the ocean club where Meline and her family were staying The do her
24:59
family are both doctors And they said "Look we need a couple of things Anyone
25:04
can help us with they know him from when he was there Can they help place who made that phone call to him that 30
25:10
minute phone call which is very suspicious right Also I can tell you this is pretty much an exclusive to you
25:16
guys here that the phone was dregistered the next day His phone number was dregistered the next day Now why on
25:22
earth would you have done that if you hadn't got some if there was some very serious reason to do it So you know here
25:29
I am back again and the police now had a very good tip off German police that he was staying at a couple of farm houses
25:36
just outside Praaluge on the night she went missing And what's interesting there was obviously a smoke screen They
25:42
put out this that they were going to search 21 properties and they put out this three areas they were going to
25:47
search in and they were spread out one in the middle of the village one west one east And so they typically the sun
25:53
did their sort of map you know exactly where it was going to be and all the different properties They spent three
25:58
days searching in one very small part of one of those areas probably no more than about 10 hectares No 10 sorry 10 acres
26:05
There was probably five ruins They knew exactly what they were looking for Turns out they had an aerial shot showing a
26:11
van and a parked outside one of these properties on the very day that she went missing and a van and a tent inside one
26:20
of those um buildings And they believe that maybe he was in that van That was his van and they believe that maybe that
26:26
was his tent So very likely she was taken there at some point Do we know do we know if um they found anything like
26:33
has that been released or is it reps what the results of the search was It's almost impossible to to say if they
26:40
found anything but what I can tell you is they had the most amazing ground search radar that goes underneath the
26:45
ground They can go down 15 feet can find bones can find metal and they brought this in They've never used it before
26:51
They very much pinpointed these specific locations And what I can tell you is that they said they were going to search
26:58
for three days possibly a fourth but halfway through the third day they
27:03
wrapped up quite early 3:30 or 4:00 And there was some remarkable pictures I think taken by Reuters or quite a number
27:09
of the photographers showing the police in a circle clapping each other smiling and then one of the German detectives
27:15
comes out with a crate of beer that he hands to everyone and they are clearly looking like they're celebrating
27:20
something Now I'm you know just looking at that body language you know and the optics there you think they've probably
27:27
got something of interest right So what do you think What in your best speculative guess What might it be I
27:34
mean it's horrible to say this as a journalist you know but the truth is that you hope they found her body You found her bones you know I think they've
27:39
already said that it's a murder inquiry They've said that from the beginning the German police have and I think the Macans themselves have accepted that
27:46
that she's almost almost certainly moved on It would be wonderful And apparently this is amazing thing Now I didn't know
27:51
this but the DNA a tiny tiny fragment of bone okay or a tiny little bit of tooth
27:56
is now enough to trace the DNA to someone It's it's it's amazing It really is quite incredible how you know the
28:04
appliance of science now and how things have moved on and you know these cold cases can now be solved sort of 40 50
28:09
years later So when do you think we'll hear more about this What's going to happen Well I think publicly they will
28:15
probably I mean for example in the Arad lake search last two years ago You may remember they were there two years ago
28:20
and there was over a hundred Portuguese police and Germans searching in a lake and around the lake area where Christian
28:26
had an area that he he camped out in They never they took soil samples They were specifically looking for paj her
28:33
pajamas They thought they might have some materials for her They got some samples of materials on the lake They took them back to Germany They spent
28:40
weeks and weeks and weeks analyzing these materials to try and get and they just could not get any DNA off them So
28:46
they couldn't say that they were they were her pajamas but they could say with certainty they came from the spot that
28:51
Christian spent a lot of time at this time I'm going to say and given they didn't even announce that they haven't
28:57
found anything but I can tell you they haven't I don't think they're even they may not announce it at all but I
29:02
hopefully will get a steer from my one of my contacts probably ideally within the next couple of weeks But if they
29:09
have found the remains of Maline Macan they have to announce that right You can't hold that a secret I think you're
29:15
right I think they would have to announce it very quickly But of course they'd have to tell the family first and they'll probably want to tell the British police first and they wouldn't
29:21
be 100% certain they have right You wouldn't want to make a mistake on that one Yeah But there's a detective in
29:26
South Africa who's who was actually there on the almost like in fact he was there six weeks after she went missing
29:31
and he had a has a device now patented in 27 countries where he took a hair from the hairbrush of Meline Macan and
29:38
could point it and via quantum physics could pinpoint this exact area where Maddie was and over four days of four
29:44
nights eight readings pointed to this exact area where Christian Brookner had his house his rental house and also
29:51
coincidentally Clement Freud who we now know to be a very dangerous was pedophile also lived And so this is
29:57
almost the exact area where the police were searching And you know so that gives me hope that maybe maybe they
30:04
they've finally got something Well they might find other horrors that if you have so many popiles in one place you
30:09
might who knows what you're going to find Well actually coincidentally quite remarkably there was a report I found
30:16
It's a very long story I won't go and bore you with the details but I found a story from 1994 online that was uh that proved not
30:23
proved but announced that there were over 4,000 child victims of pedophilia in Portugal
30:28
per million people That compared to 1,000 in the UK and 900 in France In
30:35
other words four times the number of children were being abused in Portugal than there were in in France or England
30:42
And why is that Is it less tight legisl or I think so many different reasons I
30:49
think partly it goes back hundreds of years In fact I've written a book on it If you actually want to dig into it you
30:54
can read my book My Search for Medline which is about to come out again But it's it also very lapse policing also a
31:01
lack of kind of understanding it's a serious crime and also the very fact that do you find this about Spanish
31:07
sometimes there's that kind of shrug your shoulders and go I'm not worried about you know just turn the other way not get angry do you ever come you come
31:14
across that here I think we've done a lot of stories and spoken to a lot of families of British people who went
31:19
missing in Spain and died or or turned up later on but the police weren't interested that and we know you can't
31:26
say for certain but again it seems to be a theme I think certainly there's one story we've done in Benedon recently
31:32
where the um British man went on a stag party was found dead and the you know I
31:37
think the police assumed he was just another drunk Brit and he fell off a cliff and died cuz he was drunk but the
31:43
family um had to um go there in person you know play detective themselves and
31:48
they got the CCTV and the police closed the case had closed the case and they managed to get the police in the last
31:54
couple of months to reopen it They said "Look here's video of him sober walking along." And they think he was picked up
32:00
by taxi drivers or someone taking him home and they took him robbed him pushed him off a cliff I mean their family
32:06
brilliant that they came and did that And I would say that to anybody if you if you get not just in Spain but also in Portugal if you've had seen or you heard
32:12
a criminal or crime has happened to anyone your loved ones anyone in your family do go back and do do some
32:18
research I mean get in touch with journalists because after all that's our job right To try and piece these things together as best we can Yeah Reminds me
32:25
of the Netflix show White Lines Have you seen it Yeah White Lines What's it about
32:31
Well it's about someone whose brother dies Guess what's about ina
32:36
Yeah In the '9s And then she goes back there years later to sort of find out why So that kind of reminds me of that
32:42
So I really liked it And it's And it's it's filmed weirdly in Morca isn't it Oh is it Yeah I didn't realize that Cuz I
32:49
think it was felt too sensitive to do it in a bea but it was it's actually really good Yeah It's really really watchable really Are they making a second series
32:55
of it I don't know I hope so Yeah it's good Um but yeah so talking of
33:01
investigating crimes I saw something else in the paper this week It just made me think that so dark I really hope the
33:08
police are investigating this one This is your story about twisted game which was an escape room gone wrong I missed
33:16
this one I've been away I know I was all way last week so I hope you know about this Essentially from what I can
33:21
understand there was an escape room kind of game in Granada where somebody ended
33:27
up getting dowsted in petrol and set fire to what So yeah So tell us what you
33:33
know about this world So this one lovely story is um is a small town in Granada
33:39
near Granada Um what was it called Kakar And it was this escape room was built as
33:44
a extreme escape room So you know escape room but just a bit more extreme And the advice was
33:51
the advice was wear clothes you don't mind getting messed up because you might get dirty And um the uh this escape room
33:59
has we looked it up It has a 4.98 out of five review on Trip Advisor People love
34:06
this place Apparently it's very scary It's not for the faint of heart You know you have to be quite sturdy But for one
34:13
female con or or customer contestant she found herself grabbed by a load of guys
34:19
who would be actors working for the um for the uh the escape room not random dodgy guys That's what she thought And
34:26
then they they slapped her on a chair tied her up and then they started dousing her in like a clear transparent
34:33
liquid And obviously you'd think well this is kind of terrifying but it's all a game so it's not terrifying But the
34:39
woman also to me just hearing it Yeah But the woman also thought well it's such a fun game so I'm really scared but
34:44
like in a roller coaster I'm not actually going to die Yeah But then she thought like this this sort of petrol really does smell a lot like petrol And
34:52
then um one of the guys lit a match And then she's like well that looks a lot like a real flame And then she started
34:58
to feel maybe there something's going wrong here And then the person
35:03
put the flame to her and it was petrol and she caught on fire And then she was on fire for seconds rather than you know
35:11
someone rushed in with a fire extinguisher put her out and then um everyone was apparently very apologetic
35:16
and they didn't know how this happened This was in 2022 and um the trial is going ahead this
35:23
year in October I mean is this a setup I mean are they trying to kill her or something I mean
35:29
this is unknown and it's a it doesn't make sense does it I have a panic room or escape room and then you actually put
35:36
petrol over something and light them So yeah was it was it something genuinely sick and twisted like a snuff movie or
35:41
was it a game that went wrong Like it's it's hard to say but the um the like I say The Escape Room has good reviews
35:47
It's been around for many years and they did post something on on Facebook saying "Oh god we're really sorry We hope the
35:54
woman is fine We've is this like an apology Yeah we've incorporated with police and um but three people are going
36:00
to trial." But so did someone just put the fire out then with Yeah So someone rushed in with an extinguisher So that
36:06
person obviously was prepared to do it Um so maybe it was part of the plan They just thought that's as far as they could
36:11
push it Actually thinking about it Imagine if you know what if there's a split second when you light someone and you had the you know the fire
36:17
extinguisher right there Could you not put them out like straight away Maybe that was the what happened that was the game But she did get some burns but like
36:23
it wasn't um you know death or near death It was short thirdderee burn sort
36:30
of Squid Game though right Yeah Yeah Well rather rather you than me going to
36:35
check that one out Um so talking of accidents and things that can happen I
36:41
did notice in your newsletter a story about a man that had rabies in Spain and he'd been to Ethiopia
36:48
and unfortunately he died of rabies So um yeah this is one first He was Spanish
36:54
tourist in Ethiopia bitten by a dog didn't know it had rabies I think from
37:00
what I understand and didn't get checked out Went back to Valencia where he's from and turned out he had rabies So
37:08
he's the first person in Spain to have or at least to die from rabies in six or
37:13
seven years Yeah he died Cuz once you get the symptoms if you don't catch it straight away I believe if you get it
37:18
straight away the doctors can cure it like like snake venom or something But if you if you miss that and then the
37:24
symptoms start coming out you're a goner Really Did he did he have travel insurance Do you know We don't know But
37:31
he was a long time in hospital in Valencia I mean you guys do you cover stay covers travel insurance Yeah travel insurance Yeah For expats stay Um Yeah
37:40
So you know it's very important because who knows if you go abroad and you're not covered and then you have
37:46
to have medical treatment or you have to be flown back you know So you always need to get travel insurance John have
37:52
you had any near disasters or mishaps on holiday God there's too many to name I can actually actually twice near-death
37:59
experiences saved by Germans I it's it's really hardy But yeah both times saved by Germans
38:06
Once walking in the mountains in Morocco in the middle of August which I don't recommend anyone does by the way If you think it's hot here go down to the High
38:12
Atlas and then another time on a boat off uh Thailand on a on a on a what's called a Hobie and which capsiz I had no
38:19
clue how to So yeah and I didn't have travel insurance by the way And I I kind of want to ask that I mean have you had
38:25
these kind of experiences ever you had similar things I remember I was in Indonesia traveling around and I had three months of travel insurance but I
38:31
was traveling for for longer than 3 months so it ran out on the first of March I think oh should I renew I was
38:36
like well I haven't had any problems so far so you probably don't need what happened on the second Then I went in
38:41
like a jungle trekk in Sumatra area and um I'm following the guide and the guide
38:46
you know like ninja through the jungle and um on like a very steep slope and suddenly my foot everything's dead
38:53
leaves and the ground just starts to go give way under me and so I'm going down and then I'm going down a hill So I'm
38:59
trying to grab stuff and there's nothing to grab Everything's loose and my first thought was "Oh no I shouldn't have I
39:04
should have renewed my my travel insurance cuz literally once you break a leg." Are you okay Yeah I rolled down like a meter
39:10
and it's fine But I I did have the um the meter maybe five But you know I had
39:16
that moment of thinking like this Oh if I break a leg now or even worse And how much is this though Because you know
39:22
what I always think I should get it I mean do you have like family packages Do you do Well the thing is everyone's
39:27
price is different because it's based on their risk So I take no risks I go nowhere these days your medical history
39:35
age you know any pre-existing conditions But I mean it can be very reasonable very from a very low price So like like
39:41
what's a low price Um well hard to quote you but a single trip you know could be
39:48
I think it's I think the lowest is about 13 or something like that So it's not a whole year round sort of thing if you
39:53
want to a whole year I don't know the prices for a whole year because it's based on everyone's individual risk but
39:59
but a couple hundred perhaps No Well for example I have station travel insurance and for my level of risk um I was quoted
40:06
about 70 I think for the whole year which is great So that's actually good Yeah for a year That's not bad Is it
40:12
just medical coverage or was like if your flight is missed or cancel No it's it's different things as well Cancellation baggage and there's
40:17
different options Miss flight is probably the most likely thing that's going to happen to you Depends on your age You tick that box and you pay the
40:24
extra 4 or UK I don't bother I don't do it I know
40:29
Who does I mean it's a great add-on for them I actually had a missed flight once when it was the Kaleimma the the dust
40:36
and it was really weird because I ended up having to stay in Tori Molinos in a hotel um from Malaga airport in a bus
40:43
Yeah But I was there for quite a long time and thinking what am I doing I could just go home like half an hour away But anyway so you were having good
40:50
fun in Torolenos You had a great night out in Torino Yeah I did it on purpose actually Was it gay pride No it wasn't It was just a normal
40:57
day in Torolenos the royal family I think it's quite nice that the the Spanish royals send their kids to to
41:03
school in England don't you To the UK I should Can I say England It's Wales Wales United Kingdom But it's called the
41:09
um isn't it called the Hippie Hogwarts or something Yeah And they Hogwarts for hippies in Wales And they've both been
41:15
there They're both the the the princesses And I think it's it's a good sign that the Spanish and the English
41:22
you know I think there are loads of good positive links between the two countries I think this is a really good example It's a great advert for the the UK
41:28
education system You know that they choose of all the places in the whole world they choose UK Do you know what
41:33
she studied No
41:38
Probably Etiquette Maybe But if it's a hippie Hogwarts I don't know Yeah maybe
41:44
rolling spliffs It's out in the middle of the mountains in in Wales somewhere Wales Princess of Spain is rolling
41:50
spliffs And well I hope she having some fun out in the middle of Wales What else do you do there So I guess on that note
41:56
we've covered a lot today Really interesting Um I can't wait to see what transpires with the Meline Macan story
42:03
and with the gang story So you'll have to keep us posted Yeah we will We will
42:08
Thanks very much Cheers guys Thanks Thank you
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