The Darker Side of Tenerife

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Lumps of concrete just waiting to fall from the motorway bridge onto unsuspecting traffic below. Fortunately there is a hospital a few feet from the bridge.

Unfortunately this sight is to often seen around the roadsides in the south of Tenerife. Interestingly the local councilor for tourism has to pass this spot on his way to work every morning.

Drugs & Organised Crime.
The state police’s Drugs & Organized Crime Squad is currently investigating the activities of Italian mobsters in the south of Tenerife. The gang have widened their fields of activity from traditional real estate wheeling & dealing to include drug trafficking, prostition rings and white slaving as well as providing protection to Italian criminals on the run, according to the report.  In Tenerife the municipalities of Arona and Adeje in particular were singled out in the report as receiving special attention from the police. Italian mobsters closely linked to the Cosa Nostra wing are reported to be using a well-known Las Americas hotel as it’s operational base, claims La Razòn, in Madrid. Members of the Italian Mafiosi are said to have infiltrated into key sectors of the island economy such as tourism and construction and despite constant denials on the part of the local authorities, it appears there is a serious organized Italian crime problem in the south of Tenerife!

Crime Rate.
According to a report from the Canarian Government, the crime rate in Playa de las Americas experienced a sharp increase in 1999 in comparison to 1998. The number of crimes reported during that period rose by over 600, in contrast to a fall in the numbers between 1996 and the beginning of 1999. Clearly this increase is causing concern among residents and local government as well as businesses in the area. Demands are being made on the islands government to provide more police and create a special crime unit to tackle the problem. Adeje's councilor for police and traffic, Carmen Nieves Rodriguez said, "The local police are overwhelmed by the amount of work and they need help from higher authorities". The Mayors of Adeje and Arona have asked for a meeting with the Minister for the Interior.

White Slave Trade.
Agents of the National Police have broken-up  what they refer to as a "white Slave Trade" network, operating in the south of Tenerife. Police claim that the network was involved in the exploitation of women from Eastern European countries. The women were provided return tickets from their home countries by members of the organized group and promised work when they arrived. However as soon as they landed in Tenerife their return ticket was taken from them and they were forced, under threat both to themselves and to their families back home, to work as prostitutes. The three principal operators of the network a 27 year old Croatian man, a 25 year old Bulgarian man and a 43 year old Italian who rented the various locations. A total of ten men have been arrested so far.

Public Health Service.
Trade union leader Antonio Reyes has publicly criticized the Canary public health service, alleging that its hospitals practice a systematic policy of discrimination against the elderly. He told reporters, don’t think I’m just referring to octogenarians, we’re talking about people as young as 60 here. “I would say anyone falling ill at 60 these days in this region can consider themselves most unfortunate” he added “patients are being discharged when they’re hardly out of the operating theater.” 

KLM 747-200
27 March 1977; KLM 747-200 and Pan Am 747-100; Tenerife, Canary Islands: Because of limited visibility and communications difficulties between air traffic control and the KLM aircraft, the KLM 747 started its takeoff while the Pan Am aircraft was on the same runway. All 234 passengers and 14 crew were killed in the KLM 747. Nine of the 16 crew and 321 of the 380 passengers on the Pan Am flight were killed.

Strike Every Thursday.
Taxi Drivers in Arona have announced their intention to strike every Thursday as from September 14 in protest against cab-related crime in the area and labour conditions. The taxi drivers say they are open to negotiations with their bosses over contracts and pay and don't rule out the possibility that the strike could be called off. The crime problem, however, has got taxi drivers in the south extremely worried. Things came to a head on August 19 when one local cabby was attacked by five youths in the Las Verónicas area who had refused to move out of the way of his vehicle.

Mafia man arrested in south.
Estate agent’s double identity unmasked.
The cover of a seemingly respectable Italian citizen, resident in the south of the island for the past five years, was blown sky high when he was arrested by members of the drugs and organised crime special squad. The hard-working estate agent turned out to have had a more than shady past, acting as a “financial adviser” to the bloodthirsty Calabrian branch of the Italian Mafia. Hunted by Interpol, the man who has been identified by the police as A.L., decided to lie low in Tenerife and hunkered down in the quiet area of Golf del Sur where he was a familiar part of the scene. He now faces seven charges that could result in a 28-year jail sentence. But more importantly the Italian authorities are interested in information he might have about the financial transactions of his “family”. Meanwhile, subsequent inquiries concerning A.L.’s activities in Tenerife have revealed that his business here wasn’t so squeaky clean as it may have appeared at first glance. Police sources say he had begun to dabble heavily in money-laundering operations involving property deals and was attempting to lay the foundations for the creation of a business network intended for his former associates in the “Cosa Nostra”.

Southern corruption investigation
Is this the end of easy street for the Mob?
Persistant calls for a clean-up in south Tenerife look like they may at last be heeded.
High-ranking officials from the secretary of state for security are due to fly in from Madrid this week to investigate allegations of corruption among a number of officers in both the state and local police forces. They are said to have maintained friendly, and ultimately very profitable connections with organized crime syndicates in the south of the island. For years the authorities flatly denied the existence of mafia-type gangs in Tenerife, then a tacit acknowledgement came with official declarations to the effect that the organized crime situation was “under control”. Now, after a close comparison between crime date sent in by police in Tenerife, which bears all the hallmarks of having been “adjusted”, and data in the possession of the interior ministry, it has been decided that inspections in every police station are in order. The figures don’t coincide and someone at last has smelled a rat.
Reliable sources add that lobbying from the respective mayors of Arona and Adeje, the president of the Cabildo and leading lights in south Tenerife’s tourism and business sectors, all protesting against the rising crime rate, could well have critically influenced the interior ministry’s decision.
It is known there is widespread concern within the Dirección General de la Policía over alleged connections between members of the forces of law and order and various organized crime syndicates, which chiefly operate from the Ten-Bel and Playa de las Américas areas. Sources close to the interior ministry have confirmed the preoccupation in that department regarding the apparent impunity of foreign mobster organizations in the south. These are known to be implicated in such lucrative activities as arms dealing, drug trafficking and people smuggling, as well as their bread-and-butter business of money laundering. Spanish police are in possession of taped conversations between leading members of Russian crime rackets in which the advantages of setting up shop in south Tenerife are fully discussed: living is easy, they say, in an island where the police and judges can be “bought” and when legislation regarding organizations such as theirs aren’t too tough, especially when they can count on the assistance of a lawyer well-known for his connections with a leading local crime boss. A dossier compiled by the ministry recommends greater liaison between the police and the ministry of economy and taxation, in order to keep watch on investments made by foreign individuals or companies, many of whom did not pay either income or business tax, despite their field of operations being centered in Tenerife.

Road Rage
Road rage, speeding and driver distraction are the main factors in the region’s high rate of road accidents, according to road safety expert Luis Montoro of the University of Valencia.
Prof. Montoro claims the sheer number of tourists in the archipelago triggers a situation of what he terms “traffic agitation”, meaning the potentially lethal combination of variegated driving habits belonging to motorists of as many nations all converging on one place.
Tourists, says Montoro, bring bad driving habits on holiday with them. Those habits clash with the bad habits of the resident driving population and the result is a recipe for an accident. In the Canaries, he added, the tourist factor triggers a greater incidence of accidents involving pedestrians. In addition, the islands have a greater level of leisure activities which in their turn account for a much higher rate of accidents among young people.

Drug Traffickers.
Residents of the Villa de la Playa neighborhood in Playa de Las Americas have once again found it necessary to speak out publicly with regard to they problems they face in their area.
After more than a year of struggles to rectify noise problems, rubbish pick up problems and more, a new threat is affecting the quality of life in their neighborhood. According to a statement from a resident’s association spokesperson, the area is fast becoming a known meeting place for drug pushers and their customers. "These drug sales are going on right outside our front doors. A quiet life is impossible right now. We have no idea how many people are here for the purpose of buying and selling drugs every night, but we are sure that if the police do not make an effort now to sort this out then our neighborhood will soon become a dangerous place to live," said the spokesman. Amid complaints that local children can no longer play safely outside at night, they add that people buying and selling drugs have no right to spoil the area and give it a reputation as being a drug zone. Residents are demanding that Arona local police force step up patrols in the area and put an immediate stop to this growing problem.  

Timeshare Barons Fight it out in the Streets
Yet another episode in the never-ending unsavoury story of gangland warfare between foreigners in the south of Tenerife took place on November 10 when pistol shots rang out in Los Cristianos near the Apartamentos Reverón. The target was Hussein Jamil Derbah, otherwise known as Sam, the 33-year-old brother of Lebanese timeshare baron Mohammed Jamil Derbah, one time right-hand man of the man who would be timeshare king, Mr John Palmer.
The incident bore all the hallmarks of the ongoing war being waged between the two rival bands. Derbah’s Mercedes had pulled up in the Avenida after he detected a flat tyre. While inspecting the wheel a high-powered motorcycle bore down upon him and the pillion rider took a close quarters pot shot at the businessman, while at the same time yelling out “It’s me!”. Derbah threw himself to the ground, crawled into the car and tried to drive off, but was impeded by the hand brake. The motorcyclists meanwhile doubled back and, pointing the pistol into the car’s interior, fired two more shots, neither of which found their mark. Derbah told police that though his attackers wore helmets, he had recognised one of his assailants, a 34-year old German male closely linked to the Palmer bodyguards led by his henchman, Richard Cashman.

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