The Orihuela Local Police has deactivated its social media accounts. This is a public service that reports on issues affecting the city, such as traffic closures due to accidents, pruning, felling, or any other event, such as the recent fall of debris from the tower of the Parish Church of Santas Justa y Rufina as a result of some works being carried out by the Bishopric, having over 12,600 followers on Instagram and 23,300 on Facebook, as well as on X, formerly Twitter.

The Department of Citizen Security has been notified, with the aim of restoring the sites as soon as possible, particularly in light of Holy Week, as they are utilised to report on street closures used by processions.

Three individuals have been arrested by the National Police in Elche, Alicante, on suspicion of counterfeiting currency. They are being accused of using counterfeit 20-euro banknotes to make a payment at a well-known entertainment venue in the city.

The investigation commenced in response to a complaint from the manager of seven entertainment venues in Elche. The manager reported that on multiple evenings, employees discovered three young men allegedly using counterfeit 20-euro bills to pay for their drinks.

The manager clarified that a waiter at one of the locations discovered a fraudulent bill during a security check of a customer’s currency. He promptly notified the security director of the establishment. The same evening, after the store closed, four bills were detected as having obvious signs of counterfeiting, all of which shared the same serial number.

Officers initiated an investigation subsequent to this complaint, which resulted in the identification of a man who may have been involved in the incidents. A few days later, a different individual attempted to make another payment at the same establishment using a counterfeit 20-euro bill. Five additional bills, which were identical to the previous ones, were discovered at the conclusion of the day.

Investigators were able to establish a connection between the crime and three regular consumers of the establishment through the collection of staff testimonies and the progression of the investigation.

Ultimately, the three suspects were apprehended in two distinct segments after being identified, with allegations of currency counterfeiting and fraud. The banknotes in question were forwarded to the Bank of Spain’s Investigation Brigade for analysis and investigation.

Arrests of 13 individuals for the distribution of child pornography in various Spanish locations, including Alicante, were made by National Police officers in a joint operation coordinated by Europol and involving 11 European countries. In Spain alone, 18 investigations and searches were conducted during the operation, which involved over 100 officers. The seizure of 39 electronic devices, which contained over 41,000 videos and 28,000 photographs of highly sensitive child sexual content, was the result.

In this international operation, which was conducted in conjunction with Spain and ten other countries—Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Poland, Romania, and Sweden—166 individuals were apprehended and 774 searches were conducted with the assistance of international agencies.

The Child Protection Section of the Central Cybercrime Unit conducted the operational action in Spain, coordinating the technological crime investigation groups from various provinces, including Alicante, Barcelona, Cáceres, Castellón, A Coruña, Lleida, Madrid, Navarra, Ourense, Las Palmas, Santander, Tenerife, Valencia, and Zaragoza. The operation was attended by over 100 officers.

39 devices, including laptop and desktop computers, mobile phones, USB flash drives, hard drives, and external memory cards, were seized during the 18 searches. These devices were used to obtain over 41,000 videos and 28,000 images of highly sensitive child sexual content.

Thirteen individuals were apprehended during the operation, with one of them being detained in the province of Alicante. Additionally, five individuals, including a woman, are currently under investigation. This type of investigation is challenging due to the fact that the profile of perpetrators of this type of crime does not follow a very heterogeneous pattern, as their ages range from 17 to 51.

During the week of March 24th-28th, police forces from a variety of European countries, including Bulgaria, Denmark, Spain, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Poland, Romania, and Sweden, collaborated to conduct a joint and coordinated operation against the possession, production, and distribution of child pornography. Additionally, the United Kingdom’s NCA agency, the FBI and HSI of the United States, and the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) participated in the initiative.

More than 594,000 multimedia files have been downloaded from the 6,000 devices seized in the 774 house arrests and searches conducted at the European level, and 166 individuals have been arrested.