Spain's 'biggest' money-laundering case fizzles out

MARBELLA (Source: El Pais) Fernando del Valle (photo, on hearing decision), a 62-year-old Chilean-born lawyer, pinned as the mastermind behind the Ballena Blanca (White Whale) operation, was ordered to serve a jail sentence of six years and three months and pay a 3.5-million-euro fine. His main co-defendant, Tunisian-born drug-trafficker Sophiane Hambli, was sentenced to three years and fined 1.5 million euros. Prosecutor Antonio Morales, who was asking for a 30-year sentence for Del Valle and higher sentences for the others, said that he will study whether to appeal the sentences before the Supreme Court.>

Drugs absconder arrested in Estepona

GIBRALTAR/ESTEPONA (GibChronicle) Joseph Bebeagua of 44 Constitution House, Glacis Estate, was arrested last week by Spanish authorities in Estepona, Spain, on the strength of a European Warrant of Arrest issued by the Gibraltar Courts. In a statement yesterday the Gibraltar Ministry for Justice said that Bebeagua is currently being detained at the Centro Penintenciario, Soto Del Real, in Madrid. Bebeagua and co-defendant and nephew Dylan Lara, absconded from the jurisdiction early in 2010 after a Supreme Court trial before Chief Justice Anthony Dudley (photo).