You could write crime novels about the sort of things that go on around our province. Take the case of the murder of José León, for example.

This 63-year-old man from Güevéjar – one of the most misspelled place names in the whole of Granada – was shot three times in his own home on the 21st of August. His 17-year-old son saw him struggling on the ground with a tall man with a firearm.

The man shot him in the armpit, in the chest and then, to be sure, in the head. The murderer then jumped into an Opel Corsa and raced off.

What is behind this murder is the jealous, ex-partner of a Moroccan woman and a junkie-turned-hitman.

It appears that the victim had been having an affair with a 44-year-old Moroccan woman, mother of a 10-year-old boy, fathered by an insanely jealous Gypsy. The Moroccan and the Gypsy were no longer together but even so, he was determined that she would have no other man in her life.

She had denounced him for domestic violence but had later withdrawn the charge after allegedly being threatened by him. Even so, on the night of the 15th/16th of August a ‘tall, thin man’ had set light to her front door. The said tall, thin man fits El Flores’s description. She later identified him in the court room.

Which is where our junkie, known as El Flores, comes in. This 42-year-old man from the north of the city of Granada (the badlands) was well known to the police, mainly for car break-ins. He is so adept at it that he is said to be able to gain access to any car with his eyes closed. But the jealous, ex-lover, Serafín, had offered him a different line of work: 2,000 euros to take José León out.

For the occasion it is believed that El Flores stole the Opel Corsa and was supplied with the firearm by the Gypsy – probably a revolver as there were no casings at the scene of the crime..

The Guardia Civil investigating the murder had a hunch that it was an asunto de faldas (involved a woman) from the start. Investigations led to the woman and from there to 53-year-old Serafín.

Serafín was no stranger to hiring people to carry out his dirty work, some years back he hired someone burn the car of an ‘enemy.’ Anyway, Serafín had been seen just two days before the murder in Cartuja trying to buy a firearm ‘to give somebody a scare,’ according to witnesses.

Just one hour before the crime Moroccan woman had received a visit at 06:30h from Serafín, probably to make sure that the intended victim wasn’t there.

An hour later, having shot José Leon, El Flores escaped in the car and then dumped it, but not before setting it alight on a little-used road between Güevéjar and Calicasas; right on the crossroads. Somebody was waiting for him there to pick him up and take him to Granada. Unfortunately for El Flores, a scrapyard on that same cross roads has a security camera which captured the moment and the pick-up car; it was Serafín’s.

The police had worked fast; with 24 hours of the murder, they had a motive and a suspect. Another 48 hours later they had discovered that it had been a contract killing for 2,000 euros.

The Gypsy and the Junkie are being held in custody until the verdict is handed down, so, technically, most of the actions described above must be treated as alleged.

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(News: Güevéjar, Vega de Granada, Andalucia)