A Moroccan man was yesterday arrested for the murders of two Brits and the attempted murder of another who was seriously injured in the crash last November
Eyewitnesses watched in horror as a speedboat, being pulled on long on a trailer, came loose and decapitated two holidaying Brits.
A Moroccan man was yesterday arrested for the murders and the attempted murder of another Brit who was seriously injured in the crash, which police said involved a speedboat known as a ‘narco lancha’ used by drug smugglers.
Officers said the Volkswagen Touareg pulling the trailer, seized following an investigation culminating in the arrests, had been “blocking the road” late at night on November 16, last year on a dual-carriage known colloquially as La Manga motorway when the mass pile-up the Brits were caught up in occurred.
One of the first people on the scene was an emergency responder, who told Spanish news website El Confidencial: “The Zodiac was a ‘narco lancha’ because it didn’t have a number plate and it had been tied to the trailer badly, with the bad luck that it came loose and came off and crashed on top of the car the British men were in behind it at between 100 to 120kms an hour. The driver tried to dodge it but couldn’t and the car ended up a write-off. Two of the occupants died instantly. They were decapitated.”
A total of 11 people were injured in the incident but the car pulling the trailer fled the scene. Confirming the arrests today as the suspects were hauled to court, a spokesman for the Civil Guard said: “Seventeen people have been held for crimes of homicide, wounding, traffic offences, criminal damage, abandoning the scene of an accident, unlawful weapons possession, drugs trafficking, smuggling, fraud and favouring illegal immigration as well as belonging to a criminal gang.
“This criminal gang provoked the deaths of two British citizens on November 16 in a road traffic accident on the La Manga motorway when a vehicle blocked the road with a trailer transporting a speedboat.”
The spokesman added: “Our investigation points to this criminal gang specialising in people smuggling through the use of speedboats crossing to southern Spain from north Africa. They also allegedly used stolen vehicles with false number plates and documentation.”
A revolver, a rifle, ammunition, 15 mobile phones, weighing scales, cocaine and cannabis resin were also seized during the operation, codenamed Operation Narbox-Alakman along with cash.
