Getting away with murder in Marbella

It was 4 December 2004, a Saturday and, for many, the start of the Constitution Day long weekend in Spain. Mercedes Cañadas and her husband travelled to Marbella with their only child, seven-year-old José Manuel. They were accompanied by her brother-in-law, her father-in-law and a couple of friends, all from Seville. In total, there were seven adults and six children. During the summer holidays they usually stayed at another hotel in the town, but this time they chose the H10 Andalucía Plaza, a four-star hotel with a heated swimming pool for the children. They arrived tired from the trip and decided to have lunch in the resort's restaurant.

Mercedes got change for a 10-euro note and handed the coins out to the children. Then, she went up to her room to fetch a tablet as her father-in-law had a headache. It was 5.30pm - they had only been in Marbella for five hours - and the group were drinking coffee on the ground floor of the hotel. The children were playing outside. Mercedes was walking downstairs with the pill in her hand when she heard the gunshots. She thought the children had bought firecrackers with the money she had given them. Then she began to wonder where they could have got them from, and she was struck by a feeling of dread.

Mercedes remembers the people scattering and herself running against the tide. People were fleeing into the hotel and she was running the other way. "Auntie, they've shot at us," said her niece, whom she met as she made her way outside. "Where's your cousin? Where's your cousin?" she asked. "I don't know," replied the little girl, who miraculously was not seriously injured, although a bullet grazed her thigh.

Everyone reacted differently to the burst of gunfire. José Manuel apparently thought they were fireworks and ran into the street. His aunt tried to stop him, but she was hit by bullets and badly wounded. The family friend hid with her two daughters behind a flower planter, which was shot at 28 times and served as a shield. All three were unharmed.

Little José Manuel died on the spot, hit by bullets aimed at Cosmo hairdressing salon, located on the ground floor of the hotel. There, Alex B., nicknamed 'El Chacal' (The Jackal), was having his hair cut; the police considered from the beginning that he was the real target of the bullets. SUR published at the time that he was an informer, but there is no trace of this in the case file, nor of the activities that could have made him the target of a settling of scores. Nothing was or has been heard of him since.

On hearing the first shot, Alex B. threw himself to the ground and lay face down until the gunfire ceased. He was unharmed, but not his bodyguard, who was hit several times. The hail of bullets - forensic police counted 78 - also hit Cósimo Pizzi, 36, the hairdresser; he was a friend of Alex B., who he had met in Paris and who, according to the indictment, had lent him the money to open his business on the ground floor of the Andalucía Plaza.

Cósimo, like José Manuel, died instantly. The little boy's aunt, who was 28 years old at the time, was admitted in a critical condition to the intensive care unit of the Costa del Sol Hospital with shrapnel in her lungs and had to undergo 18 operations due to the multiple injuries, from which she still suffers the after-effects today. Her two daughters suffered minor injuries, one from cuts and the other from a bullet graze.

The bodyguard, then 42, was hit in the back and thigh. He was also admitted to the ICU. He was remanded in custody at the hospital for illegal possession of weapons.

There were three gunmen who got out of a grey Audi A-4 driven by a fourth individual. A British woman who was in the hairdresser's and who witnessed what happened - she was unharmed - told the police that she thought they were speaking Arabic. All wore balaclavas, three-quarter length mafia-style dark coats and used weapons of war. Reports later confirmed that they used AK-47s, also known as Kalashnikovs, the same model of assault rifle that has recently caused panic in neighbourhoods such as Las Tres Mil (Seville), El Torrejón (Huelva) and La Palmilla (Malaga). In Marbella they arrived more than 20 years ago.

The Cosmo murders marked a turning point in organised crime on the Costa del Sol. In a society used to waking up every so often to the news of a gangland murder, the deaths of a hairdresser and a seven-year-old boy in a settling of scores to which they had no connection showed that no one was safe any more. Mafia-style activity could affect anyone.

The government reacted to the killings by creating the Greco (Grupo de Respuesta Especial contra el Crimen Organizado), an elite special response organised crime group to complement the Udycos (units against drugs and organised crime). This was the team that took over the investigation of the murders.

The police claim in their reports that the gunmen appeared "unprofessional" and that they fired "indiscriminately and brutally" because they feared Alex B.'s reaction and therefore intended to ensure the "elimination of the target", even if "innocent people fell". Professional or not, nothing is known about the gunmen.

Detectives were suspicious of a young British man who entered the hairdresser's that afternoon to make an appointment and who, while waiting for his turn to have his hair cut, went out for a coffee. One of the hypotheses is that he marked the target inside the salon, as the shots were fired only a few minutes later, although this line of investigation was unsuccessful and the client could not even be identified.

They tried to locate a friend of Alex B., also British, who was a luxury car dealer and who mysteriously disappeared after the crime. Before leaving, he allegedly committed a half-million-euro scam with which he apparently financed his escape, according to the indictment. His connection to the crime is unknown.

In 2005, an inmate in Alhaurín de la Torre prison asked for a personal interview with a detective and told him that he had heard that Alex B. had had "problems" with a British gang and that the gang had contracted an Arab group to settle the scores, however this statement could not be verified.

Investigators tapped several phones, including that of the bodyguard himself, who made it clear in his conversations that he knew the police were listening. They followed different lines of inquiry, all unsuccessful, and after two years of secrecy in the proceedings they sent the court a report that shelved the case.

In that document, Uydco officers claimed to have focused their suspicions on a Bosnian colonel who, after participating in the Balkan war, led a paramilitary organisation, the 'Grey Wolves'. They also followed the trail of the 'pied noirs' (literally, in French, black feet), which is the police jargon for members of organised groups of French nationality and Algerian origin. But that too was without success.

That report led to the lifting of the confidentiality of the investigation and, probably, the closure of the case. However it was reopened in 2008 and even included several phone taps that revealed a kidnapping of which the police had no knowledge. The case was shelved again a year later when no new clues about the murders were uncovered.

Mercedes worked as an agricultural expert in a warehouse in Brenes (Seville). The family lived in San José de la Rinconada. They have had no more children, although they are still together.

After the murder of her son, Mercedes began to study psychology at the UNED university of distance education and graduated in three years. After that she did a master's degree in grief and trauma, becoming one of the few psychologists with this speciality in the region. Now she is dedicated to helping other families cope with experiences like hers.

The family, who spent "millions of euros" on lawyers to try to push the judicial investigation forward have not received any compensation.

This past 4 December was the most painful anniversary for them. The High Court of Justice of Andalucía (TSJA) confirmed to this newspaper that the murders of little José Manuel Contreras and Cósimo Pizzi will go unpunished. The maximum limit of the statute of limitations for murders, which is 20 years, has been reached, and there will be no punishment for those responsible for the deaths.