Costa del crime

Ever since the collapse of the extradition treaty with the UK in the late 1970s, Spain's southern coastal strip of the Costa Del Sol has been a safe haven for criminals.

Drug smuggler Howard Marks; Ronnie Knight and Clifford Saxe, both involved in the $6 million Security Express raid of 1983, and Kenneth Noye, eventually convicted for a road rage murder, are some of those whose dramatic stories are told in this thrilling account.

Spain's unique status became a thing of the past when the governments agreed fast-track extraditions.

But now there's a new threat. These days, drug dealers make runs over to the tip of Africa in nearby Morocco, some meeting gruesome ends at the hands of rivals, and unscrupulous property barons hatch dubious deals to provide homes for the rapidly expanding population, much of which is made up of UK ex-pats.

This is the fascinating history of the criminals' favourite playground.