Ibiza Rolex thief awaits sentence

<These articles were originally submitted to ThinkSpain Today on 3 December 2007. ThinkSpain Today was the country's only national English-language newspaper until it was closed down at the end of December 2007>

A 20-year-old man from Naples Vicenzo Tolomelli has been found guilty of stealing a 25,000 euro Rolex and the attempted violent theft of another expensive watch. His arrest in July came as police pursued a “Rolex Gang” which was terrifying wealthy tourists in Ibiza over the summer.

Police then said the gang was made up of members of the “Camorra”, the Neapolitan equivalent of the Sicilian Mafia. The gang was blamed for 27 violent robberies involving luxury watches between 31 May and the eventual arrest of six Italians in July.

Tolomelli was arrested as he tried to steal a watch from a man in the centre of Ibiza Town. The man fought back and prevented the robbery. In the course of the tussle he was injured and the watch was damaged. The victim is to receive more than 2,500 euros in compensation.

After he was arrested Tolomelli was recognised as the thief who snatched a 25,000 euro Rolex watch from a tourist in an Ibiza Town supermarket car park. Tolomelli has been held in jail since his arrest.

People attending Ibiza penal court number two said that Tolmelli did not act as if he was a “Mafiosi”. He apologised in particular to his father who he said was a Naples council employee who, despite only earning 1400 euros a month, had managed to gather together almost 28,000 euros in compensation for the victims.

The public prosecutor has asked for a sentence of three years prison while Tolomelli’s lawyer has asked that this be reduced to one-year nine months. The judge will decide whether the compensation paid to the victims is sufficient to reduce the sentence.

New law threatens another Ibiza clubbing tradition

The spectacular parades which promoters used to publicise parties at Ibiza’s nightclubs are under threat from new laws. For years the island’s councils have tried to reduce the numbers of flyers handed out as they end up littering beaches and tourist spots. San Josep council, which includes the world-famous Space, has voted to increase the maximum fine to 30,000 euros for serious infractions by promoters. That’s ten times as much as the maximum fine for clubs breaking the new laws on opening hours.

The threat to the parades comes from another part of the same law which bans advertising activity by people not meeting “basic conditions of decency and good taste”. Many of the parades feature women wearing little more than tiny swimsuits and it’s not clear whether this is now illegal. The new law also bans people from handing out flyers with prices or calling them out. They also won’t be able to publicise their activities outside rival clubs.

Coke bust in Denia

A 38-year-old Brazilian has been caught with almost three kilos of cocaine as he tried to board a ferry from Denia to Ibiza. Members of the Denia Guardia Civil and its specialist dog-handling section from Alicante the Service Cinológico became suspicious of the man. When they searched his car they found 2.78 kilos of cocaine stashed in a number of places.

This is the second significant bust on the same ferry route in recent weeks. On 13 November two Dominicans were caught with 200 grams of cocaine hidden in their underwear.

Better dead than read in Ibiza

Almost 60 (58.9%) per cent of the population of the Pitiüses islands (Ibiza and Formantera) have not read a book in the last year. That puts them behind the rest of the Balearics. For Majorca the figure is 43.6% and for Menorca 48.5%. However the annual “Barometer of Communication and Culture” shows Ibiza to be slightly above the Balearic average for internet use with over 60% using it in the week before interviews were carried out.

Porn phone call sentence

A 34-year-old man has been fined 480 euros for making a series of calls to sex phone lines for which his neighbours paid the bills. He was given a reduced sentence as the judge recognised that the suffered from bipolar disorder (what used to be called “manic depression”)

The former telecommunications worker had managed to hack into his local telephone switchboard in Sant Carles Ibiza so neighbours would pay the bill for calls to sex lines amounting to over 11,000 euros between February and June 2005. One of the calls lasted seven hours.

Fourth time unlucky

Police in Ibiza have arrested the same 34-year-old local man four times in three weeks for breaking into cars and removing the documentation. Three of the arrests happened on successive days as he tried to enter a parked vehicle. Following his last arrest he was found to be carrying items which appeared to have been removed from other vehicles showing signs of having been broken into. He apparently left a note in at least one car demanding 200 euros for the return of the documentation to the driver.

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Ibiza death memorial on Facebook

<These articles were originally submitted to ThinkSpain Today on 19 November 2007. ThinkSpain Today was the country's only national English-language newspaper until it was closed down at the end of December 2007>

A 22-year-old student died in hospital in Birmingham following injuries sustained in a mysterious fall in an Ibiza apartment building. Rachel Turner had worked promoting clubs in San Antonio over the summer. On 1 October she suffered severe head injuries after she fell ten metres down a stairwell. She was flown back to England where she died a week later in Edgbaston's Priory Hospital.

A message from Rachel’s sister Sarah-Louise on the popular online networking site Facebook says: “I am really sorry but Rach has gone to heaven, she was a fighter and fought till she got home. she died with her family and is at peace with God, in heaven with our brother Ben.”

Sarah-Louise and 300 friends are finalising plans for a huge party in Rachel’s memory. “We thought about having a Pink Party for her, as those who knew Rach, knew she loved all things pink!,” says Sarah-Louise on the Facebook commemorative page entitled: “We love you Rach!”

The authorities in Ibiza are still trying to discover exactly how Rachel came to fall. It is expected they will pass on any findings to the British police. An inquest will be held in Birmingham in the New Year.

A representative of West Midlands Police said: “We are undertaking inquiries on behalf of the Birmingham Coroner. Results of the police inquiry will be presented to the Coroner in the New Year. At this stage, the investigation, which has included contact with the Spanish authorities, remains inconclusive.”

Final ban on Ibiza “after parties”

An opposition councillor warns banning 24-hour clubbing by forcing Ibiza’s discos to shut from 6am to noon will only shift problems to other places. Partido Popular representative Encarna Castro said: “When these bars are closed tourists will look for somewhere else to continue partying such as apartments, parks or beaches.”

By last summer only one council Sant Josep still licensed “after hours” clubs and bars, but those included the biggest and most famous Space and DC10. Castro was speaking just after Sant Josep had fallen into line with the other councils by introducing a law which will allow hefty fines for any club staying open between 6am and noon.

Jellyfish radar

Scientists are to use a high-tech surveillance system to track the jellyfish that bring holiday misery to thousands of Ibiza tourists every summer. The wireless network of buoys and beach antennae will not eradicate the creatures, but will enable boffins to understand what causes their proliferation.

Marine scientist Pedro Arnau of Barcelona University said: “We’ll be looking at the effect of the overfishing of species such as tuna, swordfish and turtles along with the effect of other factors such as desalination, the destruction of coastal habitats and the increase in nitrates in the water as the result of their excessive use by agriculture.”

Columbus wasn’t from Mallorca

An investigative journalist has reignited a row between Majorca and Ibiza which both claim to be the birthplace of explorer Christopher Columbus. The argument has rumbled on for years despite the fact that the majority of historians believe the first European to discover America since the Vikings was born in Genoa, Italy.

Other experts claim that Columbus’ writings are full of “catalanisms” and say the famous sculpture at the foot of the Ramblas in Barcelona shows Columbus pointing towards Ibiza. And the main landmark in the Ibiza tourist hotspot of San Antonio is a giant egg containing a model of his ship the Santa Maria.

Nito Verdera, author of “Christopher Columbus: the book of lies and the four truths”, said that if the explorer’s father was the Prince of Viana, as the Majorcans claimed, Columbus would have been only 46 when he died not 60. Verdera also claims that DNA evidence proves Columbus was Jewish.

Ibiza's low-spending British tourists

Ibiza attracts more British tourists who spend less than the other Balearic islands of Mallorca and Menorca according to a government survey. It also shows that almost two-thirds of Brits (63.3%) coming to the party island are on a package holiday compared with the average for the Balearics of just over a third (36.5%). The number of UK visitors to Ibiza was 602,058, an increase of 10.5% compared with a rise of 2.8% for Majorca and a fall of 6.2%. Only 6.3% of unhealthy Brits took part in any sporting activity while on holiday in Ibiza while a quarter sampled the island’s infamous nightlife.

Police confirm murder

Months after an anonymous tip-off to a local newspaper led police to a body in a disused military building in Ibiza Town it has been confirmed that the man had been murdered. It is believed the Romanian vagrant had received one shot to the face. His corpse, when it was found, was in an advanced state of decomposition and hidden under a pile of newspapers. No weapon has been found and police admit they are not following any specific line of enquiry.

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