Briton Held in Spain Over Crime Ring

Excerpt from report by Spanish newspaper ABC website on 12 July; subheading as published

Madrid: National Police at Tenerife South airport [in Canary Islands] have arrested the British national John Edward Palmer, considered by the country’s police authorities to be the “mastermind” of the armed robbery of 3,500 kilos of gold bars at Heathrow airport in 1983.

According to a statement by police and Civil Guard headquarters, the arrest was ordered by Central Magistrate’s Court Number Five of the National High Court, considering him to be the ringleader of a criminal organization that operated in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and was dedicated – among other things – to fraud, money laundering, credit card and passport forgery, the corruption of public officials and drug trafficking.

Personal fortune of 600m euros

[Passage omitted - repetition of second paragraph]

The Briton had recently obtained parole, having been jailed in the UK in 2001 after a sentence by the Old Bailey in London for instigating a mass fraud affecting more than 20,000 tourists from different European countries. From the prison he ran and controlled the whole criminal network.

(c) 2007 BBC Monitoring European. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.