Madeleine detectives fly to Spain on trail of paedophile gang

Detectives hunting for Madeleine McCann are investigating paedophile gangs in Spain amid fears she could have been abducted on their orders.

Kate and Gerry McCann's private detectives have travelled to the Costa Blanca, between Alicante and Valencia, to investigate networks operating in the area.

Gangs of child-sex abusers there have links with paedophiles in Belgium and Morocco, said the Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias.

The Costa Blanca is more than 400 miles from Praia da Luz, the Portuguese resort from where Madeleine vanished on May 3, but is easily reached by motorways.

Francisco Marco, director of the Metodo 3 agency, believes she was identified by "spotters" in Praia da Luz, abducted on the orders of a paedophile gang and smuggled through Spain into Morocco.

The development came as police began searching for Mariluz Cortesa, five, a gypsy who was apparently abducted in the Spanish border town of Huelva at about 10.40 on Sunday evening. It is only 120 miles from Praia da Luz.

Officers are investigating a travelling circus in the area at the time.

Kate and Gerry McCann made at least one journey to Huelva to highlight the plight of their daughter, believing she may have been driven through the town by her kidnapper.

Portuguese police intimated through leaks to local media that the McCanns may have driven to Huelva to dispose of their daughter's body, a claim denied by the couple.

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Gerry and Kate McCann were today dealt another blow in the fight to clear their name when a Portuguese judge ruled that case files should remain closed for at least three more months.

Their spokesman Clarence Mitchell described the ruling as "extremely disappointing" adding: "It is ridiculous this has been going on for so long.

"Portuguese police should come to the UK, talk to Kate and Gerry, talk to their friends, get them eliminated from the inquiry and get on with finding Madeleine rather than have this interminable delay causing yet more anguish for Kate and Gerry. It is almost inhumane.

"To expect them to go through this for another three months is unconscionable."

The McCanns believe their daughter was abducted from the family's rented holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on May 3, and may have been smuggled to Spain out of Portugal.

There is no border control between the two countries and the frontier was not closed off on the night Madeleine disappeared, days before her fourth birthday.

Portuguese border police were not informed Madeleine was missing until the following morning.

And members of the country's Borders and Aliens Service were only given a photograph of the toddler 12 hours after she disappeared.

The lapse would have given an abductor time to get across the border to Spain unchecked long before a lock-down was ordered by police.

But Moroccan Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa, who met the McCanns when they visited the north African country last June, insisted earlier this month: "There is absolutely no evidence that Madeleine is here."

The McCanns are said to be unhappy with public statements made by Metodo 3 director Francisco Marco.

Mr Marco, 35, has given a number of interviews claiming he knows where Madeleine is and even boasted last month he would return her home in time for Christmas.

The McCanns are paying the agency £50,000 a month but will not renew the contract when it runs out in March.