How the British Mob Secretly Ran Spain's Biggest Holiday Empire: Benidorm

How the British Mob Secretly Ran Spain's Biggest Holiday Empire: Benidorm On the sun-soaked Costa Blanca, two Benidorms existed side by side. By day it was a family paradise, all sandcastles, ice cream and package-holiday innocence. By night the same neon-lit streets around the notorious British Square transformed into a battlefield, where armed British gangs fought for control of a criminal empire hiding in plain sight beneath the tourist tack. While Marbella belonged to the millionaire mafia dons sipping cocktails in their villas, Benidorm was rougher, bloodier turf, ruled by working-class gangsters from Britain's own streets. Through the 1980s and 90s they ran brutal protection rackets against British pub owners, muscled their way onto nightclub doors, and fleeced unsuspecting holidaymakers with massive timeshare scams, turning the Spanish resort into an extension of London's criminal underworld. This is the story of how ordinary families unknowingly holidayed in the middle of a gangland war zone, how British criminals exported their violence to foreign soil beyond the reach of home turf rivals and, often, the law itself, and how Benidorm's glittering reputation as Britain's favourite beach getaway concealed one of the most violent and audacious criminal enterprises in Europe's holiday history.