Elisa Menendez
A HIT man group linked to a spate of murders and fires that have ravaged the coast this summer has been busted in Malaga.
Seven men and two women, aged between 24 and 64, have been arrested on suspicion of murder, drug trafficking and falsification of documents.
It comes after a 4X4 was stolen from a Marbella gym on March 25 – a car owned by a known drug trafficker in the area.
Later that day, investigators have revealed that the same thieves were the arsonists who tried to burn down an Estepona beach bar. Having been unsuccessful that day, they returned two weeks later to finish the job.
Almost two months later a man was shot several times by a hit man on a motorbike, at the gates of a San Pedro church, before another man was shot in front of his home in Estepona on August 20.
Investigators have now linked the crimes to an organisation headed up by two pairs of brothers.
The joint Spanish and Swedish police operation, saw nine properties raided in Malaga and four in Sweden.
Officers found a bulletproof vest, more than €4,000 in cash, a pistol, 11 mobile phones, luxury watches and diamonds valued at almost a quarter of a million euros.
They await their day in court.
