
Majorca police arrest nearly 50 pickpockets in one month and draft in reinforcements ahead of summer crime wave
TOURISTS WARNED Majorca police arrest nearly 50 pickpockets in one month and draft in reinforcements ahead of summer crime wave
NEARLY 50 pickpockets and petty thieves targeting tourist victims have been arrested in the past month by police in Majorca.
The pickpocketing spree has prompted cops to draft in early reinforcements to tackle an expected summer crime wave.
Advertisement
3
Spanish cops have warned tourists following a spree of pickpocketings
Credit: Getty - Contributor
3
The Civil Guard brings in reinforcements every summer in Majorca to cope with the influx of criminals
Credit: Alamy
3
Overnight detectives in Majorca revealed the first arrest figures linked to the 'Operation Summer' advance
Credit: Getty
National Police on the holiday island announced on Monday they had brought forward 'Operation Summer' by bringing in extra officers from the mainland.
These officers specialise in 'prevent and rapid response' crimefighting to work along town hall-employed local police.
A spokesman for the force in Majorca said: 'They will serve on the island for a month as a prelude to the incorporation of other units who will work in the municipality of Palma ahead of the arrival of reinforcements in Manacor in Majorca, Ibiza and Menorca.'
Overnight detectives in Majorca revealed the first arrest figures linked to the 'Operation Summer' advance.
Advertisement
read more in world news
FINAL WARNING Trump gives Putin two-week ceasefire DEADLINE - but can talks stop bloodbath?
A National Police spokesman said: 'So far 19 people have been arrested in Palma's Playa de Palma coastal area, most pickpockets and petty thieves acting at night-time.
'And in Palma's urban area itself 30 people have been arrested who are also mostly pickpockets.'
Detailing the latest arrests this week, the spokesman added: 'On Tuesday police in Playa de Palma arrested three men, two Romanians and a Moroccan, on suspicion of theft, fraud and misappropriation..
'One of them turned out to be wanted for drug trafficking.
Advertisement
'They are members of a criminal gang specialising in targeting tourists holidaying on the Majorcan coast.
'They acted on a task-sharing basis, taking belongings from holidaymakers including wallets and purses with ID documents and bank cards they then used for purchases in different shops or to take out money from cash machines.
Tourist faces £168,000 fine after launching huge rock from a clifftop into a gorge at popular Spanish beauty spot
'When they were arrested officers seized a rental car they had not returned to the hire car firm which they are suspected of intending to keep.
'€1,200 in cash was also confiscated from them along with two mobiles phones worth more than £850 each, documents and other high-end stolen items like designer sunglasses.
Advertisement
'All the items recovered had been reported stolen and have been returned to their rightful owners.
'In the early hours of Tuesday morning police arrested two minors in Playa de Palma they had spotted crawling across the sand to to take the belongings of some tourists who were in the sea.
'They were intercepted and the stolen items recovered.
'The detainees reacted aggressively when they were being arrested by kicking and punching the officers.
Advertisement
'On Tuesday afternoon around 3.30pm near Palma Cathedral two pickpockets were intercepted by police as they pinched a purse from a holidaymaker's bag.
'The officers were able to return the stolen purse, which had 1,500 US dollars and other valuables inside, to the victim on the spot.'
One police insider said today after the figures were released: 'The criminals we are tackling with Operation Summer have their sights set on tourists who tend to be more distracted and carry large amounts of cash with them.
'Many of the offenders are being caught red-handed by undercover cops disguised as holidaymakers themselves so they can blend in better.'
Advertisement
Although Playa de Palma east of the Majorcan capital is more popular with German and Dutch tourists than British visitors to the island, Brits are among the top victims in Palma centre.
The pickpocket and petty theft figures released by National Police earlier this week are separate to those of another national Spanish police force, the Civil Guard, who are responsible for areas like Magaluf.
The Civil Guard also brings in reinforcements every summer in Majorca to cope with the influx of criminals who base themselves on the island during peak season to take advantage of the fact there are more people to target than in winter.
It comes following a similar warning to tourists visiting the popular spot Benidorm over the summer.
Advertisement
Spanish cops have urged Brit holidaymakers to take care after footage surfaced showing tourists being targeted on "muggers alley".
The Policia Nacional told The Spanish Eye it has had multiple reports from victims and has "intervened and arrested the perpetrators several times."
It added: "As a preventative measure, continuous patrols are carried out in this area, as well as throughout the rest of the town, to prevent the commission of this crime."

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


BBC News
14 minutes ago
- BBC News
Justice department official expected to speak to Epstein accomplice Maxwell
Jeffrey Epstein's long-time associate Ghislaine Maxwell is meeting justice department officials as pressure grows to release files linked to the financier's sex trafficking network, US media comes after Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said he planned to speak to Maxwell about any information she had on other people whom Epstein may have helped sexually abuse girls. Maxwell is being interviewed on Thursday at the US attorney's office in Tallahassee, Florida, where she is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking, ABC News lawyer told the BBC that Maxwell was looking "forward to her meeting", which could help determine whether she will testify before Congress. The latest developments come as interest has switched back to Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted sex-trafficker in prison for helping Epstein abuse young have grown from the public - including President Donald Trump's loyal supporters - and lawmakers for the justice department to release files related to the Epstein case. "If Ghislaine Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say," Blanche wrote in a post on X earlier this week. On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi informed Trump during a May briefing that his name appeared in DOJ documents related to the Epstein case. The White House has pushed back dismissing the story as "fake news". Being named in the documents is not evidence of any criminal activity, nor has Trump ever been accused of wrongdoing in connection with the Epstein campaigning for the presidency last year, Trump had promised to release such files about the well-connected sex his supporters have since grown frustrated with the administration's handling of the issue, including its failure to deliver a rumoured "client list" of Epstein. In a memo earlier this month, the justice department and FBI said there was no such died in a New York prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, following an earlier conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor. His death was ruled a suicide. In the years since, conspiracy theories about the nature of his crimes and his death itself have proliferated. On Wednesday, a sub-committee of the US House of Representatives voted to subpoena the justice department for the files, which must be signed off by the committee chairman. Republicans on the House Oversight Committee have also subpoenaed Maxwell to testify before the panel remotely from prison on 11 August. House Speaker Mike Johnson has warned that Maxwell - who for years helped Epstein groom and sexually abuse girls - cannot be trusted to provide accurate attorney, David Oscar Markus, told the BBC the concerns were "unfounded" and that if she chooses to testify, rather than invoke her constitutional right to remain silent, "she would testify truthfully, as she always has said she would".Last week, the justice department asked a federal judge to release years-old grand jury testimony related to a 2006 Florida investigation into Epstein, but a federal judge in the state on Wednesday declined to make the documents public.


Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
Ex-soldier jailed after 'strangling girlfriend to death with hair straightener cord'
Kirsty Ward was killed by on-the-run soldier Keith Byrne on their make or break holiday to Spain when she told him she wanted to leave A soldier on the run from UK military police has been jailed for 15 years for the brutal murder of his Irish girlfriend at their Spanish holiday hotel. Public prosecutors had demanded a 20-year jail sentence for Keith Byrne after a jury convicted him in May of strangling Kirsty Ward to death with a hair straightener power cord. The pair had been staying at a four-star hotel in the popular Costa Daurada resort of Salou in July 2023. Ms Ward had told Byrne she wanted to leave him before he killed her, a court in Tarragona heard. Sentencing judge Susana Calvo Gonzalez ruled that because Bryne and his 36-year-old partner had been in a stable eight-month relationship it made the horror crime even more serious. The sentencing decision, revealed overnight in a 121-page ruling by the judge who presided over Byrne's trial at a court in the east coast Spanish city of Tarragona, means he could be back out on the streets in around a decade. The judge said in her lengthy ruling that she rejected arguments Ms Ward's family's private prosecutor Estela Cortes who were arguing for a 30-year prison term. Jurors found Keith Bryne guilty of murdering his girlfriend, from South Dublin, on May 7 after three days of deliberations. The 34-year-old, who served in the Irish Guards and Parachute Regiment before abandoning his post in Colchester, Essex, had claimed during his Tarragona trial the mum-of-one committed suicide at the four-star Magnolia Hotel. He described himself as a 'respectful and intelligent' father-of-three who would never commit an act of domestic violence - and demonised Kirsty as someone who could be 'four people in one day' especially after binging on alcohol and cocaine he claimed made their romance 'toxic'. Kirsty's mum Jackie Ward described Byrne as someone she 'didn't like' and 'didn't trust' on day one of the trial back in April. She said she had found out after her daughter's death she had planned to leave him during their 'make or break' holiday. She was asked as she gave evidence whether she thought her daughter, whose son Evan was 14 when she died, could have committed suicide. She replied angrily: 'She did everything for her son. She would never ever leave him. She would never do that to him.' Public prosecutor Javier Goimil, a domestic violence specialist, rubbished Byrne's court claim Kirsty took her own life during his closing speech to the jury last Wednesday on the final day of the murder trial. He claimed the former soldier, who had been living in Duleek, Co Meath, decided: 'You're mine or you're nobody's' and strangled his girlfriend to death because she wanted out of their stormy relationship. He said the forensic evidence pointed to Kirsty had been strangled from behind between 8pm and 10pm on July 2, 2023 after 'incapacitating herself' with alcohol and cocaine He told the court: 'Byrne has adapted his version of events of what happened in that timeframe nearly two years on in accordance with the evidence he's learnt there is against him." 'He's saying Kirsty tied a cable round her neck and attached it to the door knob but in the state she was in it would have been impossible for her to do that and there's nothing showing there was a knot in the cable. 'What's occurred here is a violent and painful death, a strangulation from behind where someone is pulling from the front to the back. This was not a suicide." He added: 'She didn't leave a note for her son or her siblings or her mum and what's more she had bought a plane ticket back to Dublin for July 4. 'Kirsty's relationship with Byrne was very toxic, very intense and very emotional. She decided to end it during the week they stayed at the hotel in Salou and her partner couldn't accept that decision. 'His mindset at that moment was: 'Or you're mine or you're nobody's. You, woman, are no-one to say you're going to detach yourself from me the man and have your own independent life. That was why he killed her the way he did.' He also said the amount of alcohol Kirsty had drunk before being killed would have impacted significantly on her ability to defend herself. Byrne's defence lawyer Jordi Cabre had been seeking his client's acquittal before the jury verdict and afterwards asked the judge to hand down the "minimum sentence" under Spanish law. The killer was led handcuffed from the court after learning he was now a convicted criminal after nearly two years on remand in prison following his arrest, with the judge deferring sentencing as is normal in Spain. It emerged following Byrne's arrest the day of his crime that he was wanted in England by Royal Military Police for going absent without leave after he left for Ireland in 2017. He transferred to Colchester-based 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, a batallion-sized formation of the British Army's Parachute Regiment, after leaving the Irish Guards. Reports in Ireland last March said Spanish prosecutors intended to interview at least two of his former partners about assisting the case by giving background information about him. One of these women previously claimed in an interview with the Irish Independent that Byrne had tried to strangle her in an incident at a property in Co Meath a number of years ago. Jackie Ward described her daughter after her death as a 'fantastic friend' to her parents and 'an absolutely adored daughter'. She told the congregation at the Church of John the Evangelist in Ballinteer, Dublin in July 2023 that she had been an amazing mum to Evan. She said: 'The two of them were an amazingly strong and tight team and I hope to continue the great work she has done. 'To me she was a fantastic friend and an absolutely adored daughter to myself and John. She was a caring sister, a cherished granddaughter and much loved niece and cousin. A loyal and true friend.' The Irishwoman's loved ones have yet to react to the sentencing decision. As well as a 15-year prison sentence, Byrne was also handed a restraining order preventing him contacting Kirsty's teenage son, mum or siblings or going within 1,000 metres of them for a period of 25 years. He was also ordered to pay her son €150,000 in compensation, her mum €80,000 and each of her siblings €20,000.


Glasgow Times
2 hours ago
- Glasgow Times
Hit BBC podcast to explore Daniels and Lyons crime rivalry
Gangster, the BBC 5 Live show, will return with a new addition called The Story of the Daniels and the Lyons. Glasgow Live reported the new podcast will cover the recent deaths of Eddie Lyons Jr and Ross Monaghan, who were shot dead outside Monaghan's Bar in Fuengirola on May 31. READ NEXT: 'Suspect' in shooting of Glasgow duo in Spain 'fled in 15 hours' The show, hosted by Livvy Haydock, is a well-loved true crime podcast. We previously reported that the National Crime Agency confirmed that a 44-year-old man was arrested on June 13 by officers from Merseyside Police. This took place in the Liverpool area on behalf of the Spanish authorities for two counts of murder. A Spanish police spokesperson said: 'In just seven days, the alleged perpetrator was identified. "He fled three countries in less than 15 hours, altering his physical appearance to avoid recognition. 'Once in hiding in the United Kingdom, he changed his address to hinder any investigation until Friday afternoon, when he was arrested by the National Crime Agency following the issuance of an International Arrest Warrant by Fuengirola Magistrates' Court Number Two.'