McCann cops 'to make first arrests'

A look into the Crimewatch special on the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Courtesy BBC1.

BRITISH detectives investigating the disappearance of toddler Madeleine McCann are to fly to Portugal this week to pursue three burglars who were operating in the area where she disappeared more than six years ago.

In what the British press is trumpeting as a major breakthrough in the case, Operation Grange have uncovered a unusually high number of mobile phone calls made by the burglars to each other in the hours after the disappearance of the three-year-old British girl.

Madeleine McCann, who went missing from Praia da Luz while her parents were out dining nearby. Source: News Limited

The evidence had been known for some time but was written off by Portuguese detectives as irrelevant. Now Scotland Yard has written, through the British Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), an international letter for request seeking permission to arrest the burglars to compel them to be interviewed, suspecting it was an oversight by local authorities to not have brought them in earlier. The CPS had previously written to Portuguese authorities seeking permission to access phone records of the trio which showed the unusual number of telephone calls between the men.

"Police want to be given a chance to arrest key suspects," a spokesman for the family told The Mirror newspaper.

The holiday resort in Paia da Luz in Portugal where missing British child kidnapping victim Madeleine McCann was abducted. Source: AFP

"It doesn't prove they have Madeleine but it will rule them in or out of the investigation and that is important. Kate and Gerry (Madeleine's parents) don't want to build up their hopes too high but they realise it could be a significant lead."

It is known the three burglars robbed another holiday flat in Praia da Luz village in Portugal in the days before Madeleine disappeared on May 3, 2007 while on holidays with her family. The burglars, believed to be Portuguese men, were disturbed on that occasion by a child in that flat and fled. They were later identified although it is not clear whether they were behind bars now or not.

Two digital images of what Madeleine McCann might look like now. Source: AFP

Portuguese police have been reluctant to join the on-going British police investigation, with police from the latter also wanting to base themselves in Portugal much to the annoyance of local authorities. British police reopened the probe in 2011 and have 37 officers working fulltime on the inquiry which has so far cost almost $10 million. This does not include the private donations made to the fund to find Madeleine created by her family.

There have been numerous false leads over the years in the globally high-profile missing persons case including several declared "arrests" of people who were later found to be irrelevant to the investigation.

Gerry and Kate McCann, the parents of missing British girl Madeleine. Source: AP

One of those that sparked significant interest was a paedophile who was arrested last October in the UK over an unconnected matter but purportedly told officers he had seen Madeleine a matter of weeks earlier. A family spokesman had said that claim was "highly credible" but it has since been discounted by police. However the blaze of publicity coming from that revelation from the family and followed by a BBC program prompted more than 3500 telephone calls and emails to police with "leads".

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