Spain News: 08.15.08

Here are some Spain items in the news lately:

• Of all the euro notes in the European Union, it’s apparently the ones found in Spain that have the most trace levels of cocaine on them.
• Wondering where all that cocaine on Spanish euros is coming from? Police in Spain have made a major drug bust, seizing 1.4 tons – yes tons of cocaine and arresting eight people.
• While many European countries are dealing with an increase in immigration levels, immigrants to Spain are reportedly leaving as the country’s economy slows.
• Spain’s Samuel Sanchez won the gold in the men’s cycling road race in Beijing, getting the country’s medal hopes off to a great start.
• Sadly, Spain’s sporting dominance has been clouded by the Olympics’ first failed drug test was on a Spanish athlete. Cyclist Maria Isabel Moreno was sent packing back to Spain, and Spanish authorities say they’re going to “hunt down these shameless people who harm our athletes.” Umm, I think those would be the athletes themselves, guys.
• Now, this is one of those Olympic stories that gives you the opposite of warm fuzzies – apparently the Spanish basketball team took a team photo with all of them pulling their eyes back in what looks like an effort (a most un-PC effort) to look Chinese. What’s more, they used said photograph in a full-page newspaper ad for the courier company that sponsored the team’s trip to China. As you can imagine, some people are upset about this picture. Most of the people who are upset, however, aren’t in Spain.
• A man wanted as one of Italy’s most notorious mobsters has been arrested in Girona, Spain.
• Police in Spain have freed Russian sex slaves in 26 brothels all over the country. The women were lured with promises of work picking fruit.
• Apparently the numbers of Brits spending time in Spanish jails and hospitals is rising, as vacationers from the UK get a bit too drunk (on more than Spain’s sunshine) and pay the price. The number of Brits in Spain who get arrested went up a whopping 33% last year.