Costa Blanca no hiding place for most-wanted British criminal

BENIDORM’S Policia Local have arrested Gareth Edwards, one of Britain’s “most wanted.”

Classed as “very dangerous” he is one of ten British criminals named in the Policia Nacional’s Operacion Captura launched last November. The European arrest warrant issued against him warned that he was possibly armed and in possession of drugs.

The 25-year-old, who faces three life sentences for robbery with violence and intimidation in the UK, was detained in a Calle Mallorca pub in the resort’s English Zone.

Policia Local officers had been working on the case for some weeks after receiving information that Edwards was in the area and swooped when a man answering his description entered the pub.

He did not put up any resistance when police approached him but showed them a passport with such an unconvincing photograph that they told Edwards they were taking him in for identification.

He managed to escape as he entered the patrol car and was found shortly afterwards, hiding in the empty swimming pool of some nearby apartments.

Once at the police station his fingerprints confirmed him as Gareth Bryan Edwards and he was transferred to the Policia Nacional who later revealed that his passport was genuine but issued to another person.

Edwards was supporting himself by dealing drugs at street level and he was carrying three wraps of cocaine as well as details of his clients when arrested, police sources said.