SUNNY places attract shady people, and for years the Costa del Sol has been home to more than its fair share of international crooks. But with four recent murders in Marbella and warnings that the Russian Mafia is moving into the area, the reputation of the coast's only quality resort is now under threat.
Marbella has the highest per capita income in Europe and boasts the largest number of Rolls Royces on the continent. Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith have just set up home there, joining a host of international celebrities and jet setters.
Over the past two years, however, Marbella has been looking east to attract new wealth to the town. Some 3,000 Russians visited the area in 1994, and this year over 28,000 came. Many have settled on the coast and there are growing fears of Mafia infiltration.
A Russian statue towers over the entrance to the marina and casino complex of Puerto Banus, just outside the town, where the truly rich hang out on exceptionally large and luxurious yachts. The statue, "The Victory", was supposed to be a gift from the people of Moscow for the kindness shown to the Russian visitors. But once installed, the town was presented with a 141 million peseta bill for "customs and transport costs", which the mayor of Marbella, Jesus Gil, planned to pay his Moscow counterpart in the form of three prime sites of land along the coast.
The questionable land deal scandalised local residents and was eventually dropped. But the mayor's plan to build a floating casino off the coast of Puerto Banus, billed as Europe's answer to Las Vegas, has also raised fears that Marbella is trying too hard to attract the wrong sort of wealthy visitor.
Gil, president of the football team Atletico de Madrid, is no stranger to controversy. The leader of the right wing party - also named GIL one of his election promises was to rid the town of crime so that, as he put it, he could leave a jewellery box on the back seat of his Rolls Royce convertible in the certainty that it would be there when he returned.
Once in power he doubled the local police force and through a carrot and stick approach has cleaned most visible crime from the streets. There have been many allegations of police brutality. There are also reports that transvestites and prostitutes were offered a free plane ticket to a destination of their choice as well as four nights' hotel accommodation, on condition that they would never return.
"For the normal tourist, Marbella is now a safer place to visit," according to Per Strangeland, professor of criminology at Malaga University, who recently published a report showing that ordinary street crime had fallen by 37 per cent since Gil came to office. "But the stop and frisk approach that the police have used to tackle ordinary crime will not solve the problem of organised crime."
With the recent murders of two French drug dealers, a policeman and a well known tax consultant, organised crime is a problem which many believe will only get worse unless serious efforts are made to tackle it. But there is also growing pressure on the police to play down the issue for fear of damaging Marbella's reputation.
A French Algerian drugs ring is believed to have been behind the killing of a French couple in Marbella on October. Jacques Grangeon was shot 27 times, his pregnant girlfriend, Catherine Castagna, was killed with a single bullet to the head. The couple, who were involved in running hash and cocaine from Morocco to France, were victims of an internal gang feud.
A fortnight earlier a local police officer was killed during a routine road check. His colleague narrowly escaped death, a bullet lodged in a bundle of warrants' in his top pocket. A Dutch national accused of drug trafficking was later charged with the murder.
But it was the death of tax consultant Francisco Javier Sanchez Bocanegra that really shocked the town. Bocanegra (38) was found in the bedroom of his home, his hands and feet bound, battered to death. He was from a very well known Spanish family. His brother Ricardo has been an ardent campaigner for the rights of foreigners in Spain. Two Bulgarians have been charged with his murder. The motive for the killing remains unclear.
Ricardo Bocanegra says it will take a long time to get over his brother's death. "He was my right hand man. It was a great shock. But it was an isolated incident. It will not affect my relationship with people from Eastern Europe. It will not influence me at all," he insists.
Bocanegra is lawyer, and most of his clients are foreigners. Many are from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. "Foreigners are the main source of wealth on the coast. They have honoured us by choosing to live here and we have to take care of them, keep them happy."
He readily admits to having worked for criminals in the past, "at least six or seven", he says, "but I did not know until I saw their names in the papers in connection with international crimes. They were mainly British clients. They were here as normal people, they brought a lot of money with them, opened businesses, created jobs. They didn't harm our community.
"I AM not denying that in the W future one of my charming Russian clients may turn out to be a Mafioso. But it is very difficult to know where their money is coming from. Since 1990 those who were clever were able to make a lot of money. That doesn't make them all criminals. You can not tarnish them all with the same brush. If a Bulgarian client came to me now I would welcome him with open arms."
Not everyone is as welcoming, however. Many estate agents, financial consult ants and business people refuse to touch Russian money, believing that it was earned through criminal activity, but few will speak about the issue on the record.
It was the Spanish secret service which raised the alarm about the Russian Mafia moving into the area. Reports of extortion, money laundering and prostitution are being investigated. A special anti Mafia unit has been sent to the Costa del Sol to boost local investigating teams, and Spanish police have been sent to Moscow to liaise with the police there.
The chief of police in Marbella, Adriano Jimenez Hayas, believes the Russian Mafia do not pose a real threat - "yet". "But that does not mean we are not keeping an eye on them," he says.
At least 16 organised crime gangs are working on the coast, but it is too early to say whether Russian groups are also organising.
Police on the Costa del Sol seized some 60 tonnes of hashish in 1996. In one operation (codenamed Papagallo after the exotic bird) they seized 13 tonnes and arrested 45 people including Colombian, Dutch, Argentinian, Bosnian and Spanish nationals. But it takes time, resources and international co operation, Jimenez says. Operation Papagallo took a year and a half to complete.
"The problem is finding those who finance drug trafficking. There is no coordination between countries. Governments do not want to know where the money is coming from, if someone wealthy decides to invest in the country. Banks have the same attitude. It is not in their interest to divulge what is in an account.
"Criminals come to the Cost a del Sol for the same reasons as everyone else, for the sun, for the sand, for an anonymous life. Their money is in Gibraltar, the drugs are in Morocco but the problem ends up on my doorstep. Until the laws change, until there is, greater harmonisation and until the police can get access to financial information it will not change," he says.