Colourful tourist complex masks grisly secret
As are all the blocks in what is a brand new tourist complex in the resort town of Albufeira on the Portuguese Algarve coast.
Tourists loll about what looks like a multi-coloured legoland in the slow, carefree way that only people on a leisure holiday can do.
The sun beats down on the dry terrain. It’s May 2004 since it last rained.
Seven-foot-high metal gates guard the two entrances into the complex of 220 apartments. Private security guards keep a close watch, while CCTV cameras carry out round-the-clock surveillance. The Orada complex is quiet, spotless, tranquil - and safe.
But it is here - in Block C, room 002 - where the body of a dead Irishman was found, jammed into a large freezer.
The grisly discovery last Thursday dominated local media for three days.
Not only was it a murder, but a murder of a foreigner by a ‘mafia’ of Irish drug traffickers in business with Spanish cocaine suppliers.
Plastic bags were found in the apartment, leading to speculation that the body was going to be cut up to make for easier disposal.
Not only that, but the head of the dead Irishman was going to be sent home to Ireland to the gang boss to prove his orders had been carried out.
The victim, Michael Ahern from Cork, had been violently abducted from a street in Lagos.
He was thrown into the boot of an English-registered BMW and driven at high speed to Albufeira.
Michael, or ‘Danser’ to his friends, had apparently fallen foul of an Irish gang.
The 38-year-old had recently organised a shipment of cocaine from Seville in Spain. Portuguese police believe he took part of the consignment either to sell or use himself.
The gang boss, from west Dublin, had only recently left Portugal for Ireland. When he was told what was happening he is believed to have ordered Ahern killed.
Police tracked the gang down to the Orada complex and around 7.30pm last Thursday moved in.
Inside apartment C002 they found two gang members and a spotlessly clean apartment.
“They had washed down the walls, floors. They cleaned everything. The victim’s top and the blood-stained clothes of the suspects were all in bags to be destroyed,” said police chief Carlos do Carmo.
Two other gang members were arrested outside the apartment in cars, while a fifth was arrested in another apartment in Albufeira.
Albufeira is a bustling town driven by tourism, including some Irish, but mainly English, German and Dutch.
Hotels and large apartment complexes dot the streets and hills, and more are being built.
The 25,000 residents of the town are swamped by around 300,000 tourists from May to September.
People in the industry and the police say the gruesome murder of an Irishman is not going to make a dent on that.
In the four-star Orada complex, the few tourists that could be found didn’t know much about what had happened in their midst.
A spokeswoman for the complex said there was very little noise during the police operation.
“There were no sirens or anything. The police wore plain clothes also. That was good for us,” she said.
“The block where it happened is owned by property owners, not tourists, so most tourists didn’t hear anything.”
