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SOS Madeleine McCann 26/10/09
By Duarte Levy
The theory isn't new, but according to yesterday's edition of the British daily, the Daily Star Maddie's kidnap is allegedly a crime under police investigation, perpetrated by a dangerous Algerian criminal who, in exchange for one hundred thousand Euros, is claimed to have taken the child to Morocco.
According to this same information, Maddie was transported to North Africa aboard a ferry that links the south of Spain with Morocco.
The British daily, which states having received the information from, "the criminal underworld," puts forward that the information became known when the Algerian criminal boasted about the kidnap to two English drug traffickers, Paul Bennett and James Neil.
The Algerian, who goes by the name Younis or Tariq, is described as having dark skin, curly hair and a pock-marked face, resembling one of the robot-portraits already produced in the case. According to the source quoted by the English daily, the man is allegedly, "known to the Portuguese police."
24 Horas (Portuguese daily newspaper) is meanwhile able to report that the information cited by the Daily Star, and so-called coming from, "the criminal underworld," had already been sent to Portugal by a lawyer linked to the case, based on a report from the Spanish detectives Metodo 3, who were hired by Kate and Gerry McCann.
The Spanish agency produced various reports on the subject of Maddie's disappearance, but also on the subject of the private lives of the PJ inspectors in charge of the investigation, notably on Gonçalo Amaral - reports which the detectives placed at the disposal of this lawyer, who used them publicly.
"No ongoing investigation exists into this or any other lead, and the case continues to be the responsibility of the Portuguese authorities," stated a source from Leicestershire police contacted by 24 Horas.
Police officers with a British sense of humour.
It's not the first time that, "supposed information," and "speculations," about the Maddie case have hit the headlines in the English newspapers. Just last week the British government officially denied that the Prime Minister would be contacting the American authorities, from whom, according to the Sunday Express - a newspaper in the same group as the Daily Star - Gordon Brown allegedly wanted to request images from a satellite which supposedly monitored the Portuguese coast.
Information put forward yesterday by the Daily Star: "for the price of its Sunday promotion for 40 pence the reader gets two newspapers," a Home Office source said sarcastically in response to 24 Horas.
