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AN ex-cop has revealed some of the main players involved in Tenerife’s chilling underworld from the Russian mafia to “serious players” from Britain.
Former Scotland Yard detective Peter Bleksley spoke about how “alarm bells” started ringing after cops on the island let one key lead in the disappearance of Jay Slater go – despite their criminal links.
Solarpix
Ian Whittaker
Convicted drug dealer Ayub Qassim was one of the last people to be seen with Jay before he vanishedThe holiday hostpot is known for its dark criminal underbelly as a battle for narcotics rages on amid the continuing mystery over Jay’s disappearance from the island over three weeks ago.
With global organised crime also said to be on the rise in Tenerife.
Thousands of Brits arrive each summer to enjoy the sandy beaches, vibrant nightlife and cheap alcohol all on offer in several of the island’s top resorts.
But along with the blaring music and the sound of boozy tourists a much more sinister world exists – fuelled by a fight for drugs and territory.
An intense and brutal battle to control the island’s main trade points in Costa Adeje and in Playa de las Americas has plagued the area for years.
Peter told The Sun: “This is a region that has some notoriously dangerous people operating.
“It’s an unsavoury fact of life that in certain parts of southern Spain and on some of the Spanish islands there are very unpleasant people who are major players in global organised crime.”
The former top cop named “serious players” from Britain, the Russian mafia and even some Scandinavian countries as having connections to Tenerife and the surrounding areas.
It comes as Mark Williams-Thomas, a private investigator helping out Jay’s family, has previously claimed the teen vanishing may be linked to an “established criminal network” in Tenerife.
The bombshell update came after the identity of one of the two men who went home with Jay the night before he disappeared was revealed to be a convicted criminal.
Ayub Qassim was jailed for nine years in 2015 on drug offences and spoke to Jay just hours before he vanished at an Airbnb.
There is no suggestion that Jay’s disappearance is linked to drugs, with cops in Tenerife finding no link to criminality in the case.
Both Qassim and the second unnamed man were questioned by Spanish cops on June 17 but quickly deemed “irrelevant” to the investigation.
When one of the people we know was one of the last people to see him alive has a considerable criminal background that rings alarm bells
Peter BleksleyOnce cleared they flew back to the UK with Qassim only speaking to Mark since.
Peter was left surprised when the men were let go without any further probing citing Qassim’s criminal background as “considerable”.
The ex-cop continued: “There must be other threats to this investigation, so many names have been put forward, so many question marks over some of the characters involved in this baffling mystery.
“When one of the people we know was one of the last people to see him alive has a considerable criminal background that rings alarm bells.
“All those threads of investigation should be properly explored.”
PA
Doug Seeburg
Ian WhittakerIt comes as Jay’s dad Warren Slater, 58, blasted the way some parts of the search has been handled as he declared “everything stinks”.
The devastated father has a similar view to Peter over the two men who were last with Jay.
He told The Sun: “My starting position, I’ve said this from day one, ask the two men who’ve taken him – and then start from there.”
Jay’s uncle, Glen Duncan, is also said to be convinced of “third party involvement”.
It comes as investigators probing the Brit’s disappearance believe he could still be alive but in another part of Tenerife – far away from where rescuers and his family have been searching for weeks.
Spanish police are now set to pursue at least three bombshell leads after a source in Tenerife told The Sun the case is “very much open” with “all scenarios being kept in mind”.
Cops announced on Tuesday there are still “several lines of inquiry” active in the hunt to find the missing teen.
As The Sun revealed investigators haven’t deemed the teen as “missing feared dead” yet.
THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF JAY SLATER
By Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter
Monday July 8 marks three weeks since Jay Slater, a 19-year-old from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, vanished in Tenerife.
The apprentice bricklayer, who flew out to the popular holiday island for a rave festival with friends Lucy Law and Brad Page, has made headlines around the country.
On Sunday June 16 the three of them headed off to one of the events at Papagayo nightclub.
In the early hours of Monday 17 – Lucy and Brad were ready to head back to their hotel, but Jay wanted to keep partying.
It was then that he left the south of the island and headed to an Airbnb in the northwest with two British men.
The Sun revealed the identity of one of them – convicted drug dealer Ayub Qassim, who spent nine years behind bars in the UK.
For days it was thought that the second mystery man went by the name ‘Johnny Vegas’.
On Sunday former detective Mark Williams-Thomas, who is out in Tenerife investigating, said Qassim told him he is in fact the man behind the nickname ‘Johnny Vegas’.
We don’t yet know the identity of the second man – who remains a key part of the puzzle in Jay’s mysterious disappearance.
Qassim claims he drove Jay and the friend back to their accommodation and said they all went to sleep.
In the morning he offered to drive the teen back to the Los Cristianos resort after a nap, but Jay, hungry and tired, said he wanted to leave immediately.
Lucy, the last person to speak to Jay, claims she had a panicked call from him soon after he left the holiday let, telling her he was lost and thirsty, his phone was about to die and that he’d been cut by a cactus.
Jay had been seen by the owner of the Airbnb that morning wandering around near the Rural de Teno park – a mountainous region close-by.
He is believed to have been attempting the 11-hour trek back to his hotel, despite the alleged offer of a lift and more buses scheduled for the day.
It was there that his phone last pinged – and he hasn’t been seen or heard from since.
Mark Williams-Thomas has claimed he left the Airbnb quickly, and was “scared”.
Bizarrely, Qassim says he was woken up that morning by a phone call from an unnamed friend of Jay, saying he was “in a ditch” somewhere and had been “cut by a cactus”.
Jay’s friend Lucy claimed to have “tracked down” the two men in the Airbnb after he vanished – quizzing them on the morning of Jay’s disappearance.
Some reports have suggested Lucy knew the two men, although it is not clear how.
She has dubbed his disappearance “weird and suspicious”.
Both men were questioned by Spanish cops on June 17 but quickly deemed “irrelevant” to the investigation and cleared to fly back to the UK.
Police spent almost two weeks searching for Jay in the Tenerife mountains, scouring a 2,000ft ravine, before calling it off on Sunday June 30.
Jay’s family have repeatedly slammed the Spanish investigation into his bizarre disappearance.
His uncle, Glen Duncan, is convinced of “third party involvement”.
And the teen’s devastated dad, Warren Slater, says “everything stinks”
He told The Sun: “My starting position, I’ve said this from day one, ask the two men who’ve taken him – and then start from there.”
A number of unanswered questions remain, over why Jay would have travelled so far with two older men he didn’t know, why said men would have taken him in, and why he braved the Tenerife mountains with no phone battery, water or heat protection for a day-long walk.
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