| Dear Olive Press readers, We’re half way through the month of January – I do hope everyone is maintaining their new year’s resolutions, abstentions and good habits. Good luck with those. | | The month churns on slowly and interminably, with the most notable thing so far being the god-awful weather. | | But one thing that does perk us up here in the office is the upcoming first edition of the new national Olive Press, replacing and consolidating the various regional editions into one bigger and better super newspaper. | | Exciting as it is, I can’t reveal any spoilers yet – but just expect even more bang for your buck. It is free, after all. | | We go to print on Wednesday and it should start hitting the streets from Thursday. Keep an eye out and let us know what you think. | | Brits are set to take to the streets in the UK to protest about – somewhat bizarrely – events in Spain. The UK-based group Free Spanish Hounds (FSH) is organising protests in Exeter, Glasgow, Manchester and London over the fact that Spanish hunting dogs were excluded from Spain’s 2023 animal welfare legislation. If you’re in the UK and of a mind, keep your diaries free on January 31 and February 1. | | Goodbye Benidorm? The sometimes-beloved holiday destination is facing a financial apocalypse after Spain’s Constitutional Court said it will not hear an appeal against the seaside town’s €330 million compensation order. The city council has been ordered to hand over the sum (double its annual budget) to the Murcia Puchades family over an urban planning dispute. | | It wouldn’t be the Costa del Sol if there wasn’t a narco-fulled crime wave taking place somewhere. And this week we bring you the tidings that a recent shootout in Mijas has presaged a new trend between the costa’s burgeoning mafia community. Police investigators say that these crime groups have decided it’s easier and more cost effective to steal drugs from rival gangs, rather than go through the hassle of smuggling them into Spain themselves. So now there’s lots more violence. | | Staying with the narco theme, and separately-but-not-that-separately, the Policia Nacional proudly announced this week that they’d cracked the formidable Balkan cartel. In something that I personally found quite satisfying, we were able to tie together a lot of the biggest narco busts in the previous 12-18 months into one coherent narrative. One in which Spanish police untangled and took down a conglomeration of three separate organised crime groups that trafficked cocaine across the Atlantic in cargo ships and from there smuggled it into Spanish shores and ports. | | Enjoy the weekend! And please do get in touch with any thoughts or comments you might have! | | | | | | | Edificio Centro Comercial El Duque, first floor, Carretera N340, km 144.5 | | San Luis de Sabinillas, Malaga 29692, Spain | | Copyright © 2025 The Olive Press, All rights reserved. | | | |
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