Cocaine bust led to death; Costa del Shooting: Man held

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), Feb 11, 2008

Byline: By BRENDA HICKMAN Crime Reporter

SPANISH police have arrested a Tyneside man in a pounds 9.2m cocaine bust on the Costa del Sol.

Graham Hall, 41, of Wallsend, was held with six others following the discovery of the drugs destined for the UK.

Hall was detained hours after Dublin drugs baron Paddy Doyle was shot dead in Estepona near Mar-bella.

Northumbria Police said they haven't had any communications with the Spanish authorities over Hall's arrest but are making further inquiries.

Murder squad detectives are working with Irish officers and are trying to establish links between the drugs haul and Doyle's death last Monday.

Officers from Spain's Drugs and Organised Crime Unit approached a group of men loading furniture on to a van in the town on Tuesday.

And discovered the 140 kilos of cocaine in secret compartments inside the furniture.

Seven men, six British and one Irish, were arrested. Hall was one of those arrested along with Edward Thompson, 49, from Liverpool.

Spanish police have been working in collaboration with the Irish Garda following the assassination of Dublin gang member Doyle.

A man wanted for a gangland killing on Tyneside two years ago was named last month among 10 suspected criminals hiding in the "Costa del Crime".

Police believe Allan Foster flew from his Spanish hideaway to assassinate David 'Noddy' Rice in South Shields in May 2006 with a silenced semi-automatic gun.

It is thought he flew out of the country the day after the killing, at a seaside car park near Marsden Grotto, and has remained a fugitive since.

Foster, 31, was named among 10 suspects by Crimestoppers on a most-wanted website targeting the Costa del Sol.

Mr Rice, 42, was shot nine times by two masked men on the seafront at South Tyneside after being lured to the meeting by Steven Bevens, 39.

Bevens worked for Foster, who police believe fired the fatal shots. Last year Bevens was sentenced to life with a minimum of 26 years behind bars for murder, while getaway driver Derek Blackburn, 51, of Humberside, who turned informer on the duo, was given four years for assisting an offender, later cut to two and a half years.