IT was funded by two businessmen Tomas Bengoechea - aka El Grande - from Sevilla and Juan Serrano - aka El Apoderado - from Estepona, and was built by Manuel Clemente, or The Engineer, based in Galicia.

But the 'Narcosubmarine' - which was sold for 100,000 euros to a Columbian drug cartel - was blown out of the water on its first dive.

Now all three men are facing nearly 100 years in prison between them at a trial in Galicia.

The semi-submersible submarine had room for just one person, who received oxygen from a pipe that stuck up above the surface

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(AFP) The main chemical in marijuana appears to aid in the destruction of brain cancer cells, offering hope for future anti-cancer therapies, researchers in Spain wrote in a study.

The authors from the Complutense University in Madrid, working with scientists from other universities, found that the active component of marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), causes cancer cells to undergo a process called autophagy - the breakdown that occurs when the cell essentially self-digests.

The research, which appears in the April edition of US-published Journal of Clinical Investigation, demonstrates that THC and related "cannabinoids" appear to be "a new family of potential antitumoral agent."

The authors wrote that the chemical may prove useful in the development of future "antitumoral agents."

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(CNS) The active ingredient in marijuana appears to reduce tumour growth, according to a Spanish study published on Wednesday.

The researchers showed giving THC to mice with cancer decreased tumour growth and killed cells off in a process called autophagy.

"Our findings support that safe, therapeutically efficacious doses of THC may be reached in cancer patients," Complutense University in Madrid reported in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

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Spanish Study Says THC May Pave Way for Cancer-Treating Medications

The active ingredient in marijuana appears to reduce tumour growth, according to a Spanish study published on Wednesday.

The researchers showed giving THC to mice with cancer decreased tumour growth and killed cells off in a process called autophagy.

"Our findings support that safe, therapeutically efficacious doses of THC may be reached in cancer patients," Guillermo Velasco of Complutense University in Madrid and colleagues reported in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

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New Study; Many Adults in the Sample Had None of the Usual Risk Factors

Among individuals who appear to be "mentally well," heavy use of marijuana may predispose them to develop schizoprehenia and other "psychoses," new research suggests.

Among 92 patients, ages 18 to 65 years, who suffered a first episode of functional psychotic illness, more than half said they smoked marijuana daily or nearly every day and most of these individuals (66%) had no pre-existing signs of abnormal neurological development that would put them at risk for psychosis.

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Boastful 'Baby' treated his Spanish jailers to a brothel before escaping; now he's back in prison

Spanish police have captured one of the world's most prolific cannabis smugglers after he escaped jail with the help of prison guards in his pay.

Mohamed Taieb Ahmed, nicknamed El Nene - The Baby - was arrested after being stopped in a sports car belonging to his brother in Spain's north African enclave of Ceuta. He was carrying false papers and police had to identify him by his fingerprints.

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Long a Transit Point for Smuggling into Europe, the Country Is Now the Largest Consumer of the Drug on the Continent, Recent Studies Show.

MADRID -- Around dawn on a Sunday, packs of young people are huddled at stoplights, or ambling down Paseo del Prado.

Despite the hour, the day isn't just beginning for them. Like thousands of young Spaniards, they are ending a long night of hard-core partying that very likely included the unbridled snorting of cocaine.

At crowded clubs and throbbing bars along Madrid's Gran Via, and on side streets radiating from the Puerta del Sol, the city's heart, a gram of coke is casually sold for 50 euros -- about $79 -- and quickly consumed in restrooms or nearby parked cars.

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The number of teenagers in the province of Alicante who smoke cannabis is rising, as is the frequency with which they smoke the drug. More and more teenagers take the substance daily and, according to experts, that abuse will show in the next few years. The latest study showed that 40% of schoolchildren aged between 12 and 17 smoke 'spliffs' and 2% smoke them every day.

Bartolome Perez Galvez, the head of the Addictive Conduct Unit at Hospital San Juan, speaking at the III Infant and Juvenile Psychiatry Conference last Friday, revealed the new statistics, adding that "the cannabis problem is more serious than that of any other drug, such as cocaine or other designer drugs."

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Drug Transported From South America to Europe

MADRID, Spain - A landmark shift in trafficking routes has transformed West Africa into a hub for cocaine smuggling from South America to a booming European market, according to anti-drug officials on three continents.

Drug traffickers have established a safe haven and transit area along the Gulf of Guinea to elude aggressive efforts to seize cocaine headed directly to Europe. Anti-drug officials fear the new route will worsen lawlessness in African countries already overwhelmed by crime, poverty and instability.

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The Ministry Of Health Will Have To Authorize "Compassionate Use" Of The Drug On A Case By Case Basis

Heroin as medicine. The Council of Andalucia is formally requesting permission from the Ministry of Health to administer the drug to a group of addicts in Granada as if it were an experimental medicine. The Council's decision is based on the clinical research with heroin it has undertaken, which shows that heroin maintenance improves health twofold over methadone in long term addicts who have not been able to give up the drug. The Health Ministry will have to authorize compassionate use of the drug on a case by case basis, but the formal request puts the Ministry in an awkward position. The department run by Elena Salgado has until now opted to turn a blind eye to heroin maintenance.

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A new study conducted by scientists at Complutense University in Spain suggests that cannabis extracts may shrink brain tumours and other cancers by blocking the growth of the blood vessels which feed them.

According to New Scientist, Manuel Guzman and colleagues have demonstrated how the cannabis extracts block a key chemical needed for tumours to sprout blood vessels.

The team tested the effects of marijuana extract, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol in 30 mice and found that it inhibited the expression of several genes related to the production of a chemical called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF).

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They looked like a real football team - with snarling coach included. But the 10 men arrested at the weekend in Spain's southern province of Cadiz were not going to play a match, despite their yellow and blue kit.

They were drug traffickers who used their footballs, knapsacks and club strips, emblazoned with the team name of a local town, Guillen Moreno CF, as a ruse to fool border police as they passed from the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, in North Africa, to Algeciras, on the southern Spanish mainland, a police spokesman in Cadiz said."They were not going to play football," he said. "Their game was drugs."

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In a bold venture that puts Spain at the forefront of the medical use of cannabis in Europe, 60 pharmacies and four hospitals in Catalonia are to prescribe marijuana for therapeutic use where other treatments have failed.

The pioneering scheme surpasses measures taken by the Dutch, leaders in the field, and puts British efforts in the shade. A British drug company has been denied permission to produce medicinal cannabis for trials - because of lack of political will, critics say.

Doctors in Catalonia will be able to prescribe cannabis in capsules or as an infusion to help four specific conditions: anorexia among Aids patients; nausea caused by chemotherapy in cancer patients; constant pain - including migraine - that has been unresponsive to other treatments; and muscular problems among those with multiple sclerosis. About 150,000 patients are expected to benefit.

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Extremists Look To Organized Crime

MADRID, Spain -- The odd crew of longtime extremists and radicalized gangsters accused of committing the March train bombings nourished their holy war with holy water.

And hashish.

The water came from Mecca. The conspirators drank it during purification rituals at a barbershop that was an after-hours prayer hall for disciples of Takfir wal Hijra, a secretive Islamic sect active in the criminal underworld of Europe and North Africa.

The hashish came from Morocco. The ideologues of the terror cell justified selling drugs as a weapon of jihad. The Moroccan dealer who financed the plot traded a load of hashish for the dynamite that slaughtered 191 people aboard commuter trains on March 11. The drug trafficker led the cell along with a Tunisian economics student, a duo whose disparity reflects the evolving nature of Islamic terrorism. Both blew themselves up after a standoff with police last month.

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Muslim Extremists Who Attacked Madrid Funded The Plot By Selling Drugs, Investigators Say.

MADRID - The odd crew of longtime extremists and radicalized gangsters accused of carrying out the March train bombings here nourished their holy war with holy water.

And hashish.

The water came from Mecca, the Muslim holy city in Saudi Arabia. The conspirators drank it during purification rituals at a barbershop that was an after-hours prayer hall for adherents of Takfir wal Hijra, a secretive Islamic sect allegedly active in the criminal underworld of Europe and North Africa.

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News Conference Describes Alleged Planning by Suspects

Madrid - The Islamic extremists responsible for the Madrid train bombings financed their plot with sales of hashish and ecstasy and drank holy water from Mecca in ritual "purification acts" before the attacks, the acting interior minister, Angel Acebes, said Wednesday.

In a final news conference before the newly elected Socialist government takes office, Acebes described the March 11 terror attacks as a local, independently organized operation led by people with "connections to other fundamentalist groups in Europe and outside Europe."

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MADRID, Spain - Terrorists who carried out the Madrid train bombings were members of an autonomous cell who may have had ties with fundamentalists elsewhere but who got financing chiefly from drug profits, the interior minister said Wednesday.

Officials are investigating the possibility that someone with ties to radical Islam -- and perhaps terrorist training in Afghanistan or elsewhere - -- was the overall leader of the March 11 attacks that killed 191 people, but aren't sure such a person even exists, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said.

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MADRID, Spain - The Islamist extremists responsible for the Madrid train bombings financed their plot with sales of hashish and "ecstasy" and drank holy water from Mecca in ritual "purification acts" before the attacks, the acting interior minister, Angel Acebes, said Wednesday.

In a final news conference before the newly elected Socialist government takes office, Acebes described the March 11 terror attacks as a local, independently organized operation led by people with "connections to other fundamentalist groups in Europe and outside Europe."

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Madrid, Spain - The perpetrators of the Madrid train bombings were members of an autonomous cell who may have had ties with fundamentalists elsewhere but received their financing chiefly from drug profits, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said yesterday.

Officials are investigating the possibility that someone with a deeper grounding in radical Islam - and perhaps terrorist training in Afghanistan or elsewhere - was the overall leader of the March 11 attacks that killed 191 people, but are not sure such a person even exists, Acebes said.

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MADRID, Spain - Police seized about 10 tons of cocaine on a fishing boat off the Cape Verde Islands and arrested 13 people, authorities said Friday.

Spanish Civil Guards boarded the Belize-flagged boat about 1,000 miles from the island chain off the coast of West Africa, police said.

The cocaine was found wrapped in 215 parcels, each weighing about 55 pounds.

The crew of the "Lugo," all Colombians, were arrested. Six other people - five Spanish men and a Dominican woman - also were arrested in connection with the seizure in Spain's northwestern region of Galicia, according to the police statement.

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