The Guardia Civil post in Órgiva received a mysterious package, followed shortly after by a hoax bomb-threat call. After calling in the bomb-disposal squad (GEDEX) and evacuating the police station, which is situated in the centre of the town, they were not impressed when it turned out to be a hoax.
The package arrived at 11.30h on the morning of the 3rd, raising the policemen’s suspicion that it might not be an ‘innocent parcel,’ so they contacted Headquarters in Granada, who sent the bomb squad. In the meantime the emergency services number 112 received an anonymous call to say that two parked cars; one of which was supposedly in the Plaza García Moreno, which is the main square where the bars and cafeterias with their terraces are, of the police station had bombs in them. After searching all the cars parked there and nothing was found, the tension eased off.
Whilst this was happening, investigations were taking place to find out where the call had come from. They soon located the source and the caller, whose fingerprints were all over the hand-written address information on the parcel.
Whilst all this was going on, the police were also evacuating the police station, which is just across the Plaza de La Alpujarra from the municipal market and close to the court rooms and Town Hall. The bomb-disposal crew only found candles in the parcel, which were included to give the appearance of it containing sticks of dynamite.
The alleged culprit, well known to the Guardia Civil, is a 30-year-old man, who they had arrested some months earlier; after running an identity check they had found that there was a warrant out on him in Córdoba after failing to present himself at the prison there.
The Guardia Civil consider that this hoax was an act of revenge for this episode, because the young woman from the Alpujarra who he had been going out with him, broke her relation off with him upon his arrest.
The Guardia Civil haven’t caught up with him yet, but they are rather keen to do so.
(News: Orgiva, Alpujarra, Granada, Andalucia)