Detectives said today the unnamed Moroccan had been held on suspicion of homicide and attempted homicide over the horror accident (Image: SOLARPIX.COM)
Police probing the car crash deaths of two British tourists near Spain’s La Manga luxury resort have arrested 17 members of an alleged human smuggling gang including the driver suspected of killing them.
Detectives said today the unnamed Moroccan had been held on suspicion of homicide and attempted homicide over the horror accident.
A third Brit was critically injured in the crash, initially said to have happened after a speedboat described at the time as a suspected ‘narco lancha’ used by drug smugglers, came loose from a trailer on the back of another vehicle in front of them.
Today police 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 on a dual-carriage known colloquially as La Manga motorway when the mass pile-up the Brits were caught up in occurred.
They also accused the detainees, who include Spanish nationals as well as suspects from Morocco, Algeria, and Colombia, of belonging to a people smuggling gang operating across the Strait of Gibraltar.
Reports at the time of the crash said the two Brits who died, aged 49 and 57, had been beheaded and golf clubs found in the back of their smashed-up Seat Leon had led officials to believe they were heading towards the exclusive La Manga golf and tennis resort in south-eastern Spain.
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A total of 11 people were injured in the incident on the RM-12. 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 well-placed source said: “The detainees include the man believed to have been driving the Volkswagen Taureg that was pulling the trailer. He is a middle-aged Moroccan. He was arrested on suspicion of homicide rather than manslaughter.
“His intention that day might not have been to kill anyone but we believe his actions were so reckless they constitute alleged crimes of homicide and attempted homicide.
“It will be up a judge now to decide how the investigation proceeds.”
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.