Disappeared and Abducted Children and Young Adults > The Private Investigators

No 2 - The Search for Madeleine McCann and Spanish Investigators Método 3

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Mr Moderator:
The Search for Madeleine McCann and Spanish Investigators Método 3

Barcelona-based Spanish PI firm Método 3 was a team of private investigators hired by the McCanns when they returned to the UK, after the Policia Judiciaria had made them 'arguidos' in September 2007.  This family run detective agency was set up in the mid 1980's by Maria Marco, known as Marita and also known as Marita Fernandez Lado. The director-general of the agency in 2007 was her son, Francisco Marco.  At the time Método 3 were hired, Mr Marco insisted that he had a "100 per cent" success rate and had reunited 23 missing children and teenagers with their families. However, in November 2007, he refused to discuss his claims with The Sunday Telegraph, insisting he was ''too busy with his investigation" to discuss it.



Francisco Marco, director and boss of Método 3
On 19 October 2007, Alberto Carbas, the head of the Spanish CID Anti-Kidnapping Unit (Unidad de Secuestros de la Policia Judicial) contacted the PJ and asked detectives in charge of Madeleine's investigation it they were willing to have a meeting with a representative from Metodo 3 and a Spanish police officer from the same unit.

The purpose of the meeting was to give the PJ some information those detectives had. The Spanish police officer made clear that Metodo 3 had no intention of interfering in the Portuguese police work, but only to transmit some useful information. In the same contact, Metodo 3 said that they were not working for the McCanns, but for Brian Kennedy.

On November 13, 2007, the meeting took place, in Portimão. Two PJ detectives – Ricardo Paiva and Paulo Ferreira. - the director of Metodo 3, Mr. Francisco Marco, an adviser from the private detectives company, Mr. António Jimenez (former head of Police Anti-Kidnapping Unit from Catalonia) and Mr. Brian Kennedy participated in the meeting.

The two PJ detectives submitted a report, about the meeting, the information exchanged and the investigations, following the leads given by Metodo 3.

On the report, which is in the DVD files, it's referred that Mr. Kennedy stressed, just as the meeting started, that his only intent was a charitable one, because he was concerned with cases related with child neglect and missing children. He stated that his concern, in that specific case, was only the truth and nothing more than the truth, irrespective if the McCanns, their friends or any other person was involved or suspect.
 
In 2003, Marco said in an interview that as far as his agency was concerned ''Our focus is companies''. In fact, the primary line of work for Método 3 was to investigate company fraud - which explains why their senior employees were all lawyers. The firm however was not short on controversy when its detectives were arrested in 1995 in a phone-tapping scandal linked to leading politicians and businessmen. Marco's mother, Maria Fernandez Lado, was pictured in handcuffs after being arrested as she handed a client a cassette allegedly containing a phone-tapped conversation.

In a raid on Método 3's Barcelona offices, police seized handguns, ammunition, listening equipment, cassettes and transcripts of taped phone calls. But four months later the case was 'archived' when the judge said there was no evidence Método 3 had been involved in phone tapping or profited from it.

Those revelations brought into question the suitability of the firm in running the McCanns' investigation. It was not known if the McCanns were aware of Método 3's past but a fellow private investigator said of them, "They have portrayed themselves as the best investigators in the world. The truth is they are nothing of the sort. Their murky background is riddled with controversy."

Their big break came nearly 10 years later, when M-3 was credited with tracking down one of Spain’s most-infamous spies, Francisco Paesa, a notorious arms dealer and double agent also known as “El Zorro” (The Fox) and “the man with a thousand faces”. Paesa fled Spain after being charged with money-laundering. His family claimed he died in Thailand in 1998 and arranged for Gregorian masses to be sung for his soul for a month at a Cistercian monastery in northern Spain. Acting for a client who claimed to have been defrauded by Paesa’s niece, M-3 traced the fugitive to Luxembourg. At the behest of the Spanish national newspaper El Mundo, the agency then traced him to Paris. Paesa remains on the run, however.

In 2007 in collaboration with El Mundo, and again by following an illegal money trail, M-3 tracked down the daughter of the wanted Nazi war criminal Aribert Heim to a farm in Chile. “This was pro-bono work, and we only do it when we have time,” says Marco. The hard-pressed detective did have time just before Christmas, however, to launch a book he had co-written with a Spanish journalist. The book claims that clients of M-3 sacked directors of a charity involved in sponsoring children in the Third World, were victims of a plot to discredit them by people associated with a Spanish branch of Oxfam who were jealous that the public was giving them large donations. The sacked directors were then still under investigation for fraud.   

On 15 September 2007, John McCann issued a statement from the board of Madeleine's Fund which stated:

''On behalf of the extended McCann family and the Madeleine Fund, I would like to say how grateful we are for people's generosity and support.

The main objective of the Madeleine Fund is to leave no stone unturned in the search for Madeleine.

To that end I would like to announce that the Fund will finance a broad range of initiatives in advertising to remind everyone that Madeleine is still missing. These adverts will focus on Spain, Portugal and other parts of Europe and will consist of billboards and other media. This financing of advertisements will complement previous efforts by the Fund and many motivated individuals – family, friends and people touched by our cause.

I hope that the general public will continue to support us in this.

It is so important that we remember: "don't you forget about me"- our lovely wee Madeleine.''

It is almost certain that Metodo 3 would have been hired by this date and that makes John McCann's statement even more extraordinary. He is making a public statement to announce new advertising initiatives, unlikely to cost more than £80,000, yet, it would appear, the board of directors are failing to make public the fact that they have just committed £600,000 of Madeleine's Fund - which they have been put in place to administer - to Metodo 3.

It may be within their rights, as a limited company, to announce and keep secret whatever they like. However, given the board's desire to make public their commitment to finding Madeleine, there would appear to be more than hint of deception about concealing such important information. Especially as the official Find Madeleine site states that 'An experienced Fund Administrator has been appointed to ensure the highest standards of transparency and accountability'.

As far as the search for Madeleine was concerned the firm was initially engaged on a 6 month contract when it was realised that English or US investigators might not receive the cooperation of the Portuguese people.  The Madeleine Fund board initially set aside the sum of £600,000 to cover their contract which equated to £50,000 per month. Their involvement was not made public however until 24 October 2007 when during a Press conference they publicly boasted that they would have Madeleine home by that Christmas.  The announcement was timed to coincide with an Antena 3 TV interview, broadcast on Spanish television that night - the first interview by the McCanns since receiving their arguido status.



Kate and Gerry McCann appear on Spanish TV network Antenna 3
It enabled both the announcement of the agency and Metodo 3's telephone number to receive maximum coverage from a global audience. That impact was seemingly valued higher by the McCanns' team than the 'transparency' of revealing when they were hired and for how much.  Metodo 3 managing director Francisco Marco, 35, exclusively told the News of the World: "I'm certain Madeleine was kidnapped. And I'm also sure her parents had nothing to do with her disappearance.

"My own view is the most likely place to find her is Morocco. We're working very hard on all information indicating that. But I stress that we are following up EVERYTHING."

So, what were Metodo 3 doing for nearly two months before the McCanns announced that they had been hired?

Were they receiving £50,000 per month from Madeleine's Fund, and an undisclosed sum from the McCanns' wealthy backers, just for keeping secret?

It is more likely they were working stealthily to get witnesses on board to support the McCanns case. According to Clarence Mitchell, Metodo 3 have been active in Portugal, which is illegal under Portuguese law, but Mr Mitchell claims Alipio Ribeiro has been turning a blind eye to it.

Daily Mail, 28 November 2007:

The McCanns' spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, said: "The fund has agreed to pay Metodo 3 £50,000 a month towards their costs."

Asked about donations, he said: "Money pours in at the start and dries up after a while, it's only natural. Money is still coming in."

Daily Mail, 10 January 2008:

'He (Clarence Mitchell) said the Find Madeleine board members and the McCanns' multi-millionaire backer, double glazing tycoon Brian Kennedy, would meet to discuss the contract (of Metodo 3) in February.

"It is a matter for the bankers and the fund to make the final decision," he said.

"We are paying Metodo 3 £50,000 a month so of course it is a subject of debate. The decision is as much with Brian as it is with the fund, which pays for Metodo 3's involvement."

69

Mr Moderator:
Método 3 initially worked on the theory that Madeleine McCann had been abducted by a Portuguese paedophile before being transported to Morocco.  There have also been a string of sightings in Morocco of young girls resembling Maddie. Six days after she vanished, Norweigan-born Mari Pollard, 45, said she was "100 per cent certain" she saw Madeleine at a garage in Marrakesh.

In September it emerged a second sighting had ALREADY been reported by a holidaymaker from Yorkshire in a hotel opposite the garage.

Then Jeannie Thompson, 56, from Devon said she saw a blonde girl looking "dishevelled" as a man took photographs of her at a the Cafe des Epices in Marrakesh on May 11.  Three more women have since come forward with sightings.  At one point they claimed to have found a blonde girl who had been kidnapped by a Moroccan family.  Metodo 3 said Interpol is investigating the discovery of the blonde girl living in the Rif mountains — the area where they are searching for Madeleine.



The Rif Mountains are home to the Berber people.  It is also the centre of hashish production in Morocco.
An insider said: "She was not Madeleine but she was an English speaker, possibly an American...investigators came across her as they were working to find Madeleine and have tipped off Interpol. There is a long history of girls being kidnapped from Europe and ending up in Morocco.  It's a very secretive country and the area of the Rif mountains enjoys official protection because of the importance of the hashish production and trafficking that goes on to the country's economy.  It was obvious to the investigators that this girl was not with her natural family. It's entirely feasible that Madeleine could be in a similar situation."

The boss of Metodo 3 said he believed Madeleine was abducted by a care worker on the instruction of a paedophile gang who stole the child to order.  He believes another girl matching Madeleine's description, who has been spotted with a woman aged about 60 in the Rif mountains by 10 different people, could well be the four-year-old who went missing from the Algarve on 3 May.

Morocco had a reputation as a haven for paedophiles and Kate and Gerry paid a two-day visit earlier in the hunt to meet the Interior Minister and conduct a series of talks with child protection officers.



On one occasion a Berber family even had to produce their child's birth certificate when it
was claimed that she could have been abducted just because she had blonde hair.
Mark Williams-Thomas, a former detective and managing director of child protection consultancy WT Associates, said: “It is an astonishing amount of money that is being spent focusing on Morocco.

"There is a big difference between a sighting and information. Unless you have definite information that suggests she is in Morocco then it seems pointless.

“The likelihood of Madeleine being taken out of Portugal is very slim. I would be concentrating more on Portugal than anywhere else. To me, it holds the key.”

George Joffe, a professor at King's College London and an expert on north Africa, said: “It strikes me as wishful thinking that Madeleine is in Morocco. The fact is, blonde, blue-eyed children in northern Morocco are not uncommon. It is not an indication they are stolen.”

In the town of Chefchaouen, a reporter spotted Aya, who is the same age as Madeleine. Her father, a farmer, was amused when showed a photograph of the missing girl and pointed out her similarity to his daughter.

He said: “It is easy to see how a tourist might think this is Madeleine but there are plenty of blonde children here.”

In the village of Souk-el-Arba-des-Beni- Hassan, men gathered round to view posters of Madeleine and an artist's impression image of a moustached man of north African appearance who had been a possible suspect.

He has since been ruled out of the case. The drawing produced almost hysterical laughter.

“There are a million men who look like this,” said Mustafa Ben Dris, who was about the only man there without a moustache.

Looking at posters of Madeleine with Arabic writing on, which we downloaded from the Find Madeleine website, Mustafa said: “We have never heard of Madeleine McCann but she is not here.

"She doesn't have an African face, she has a European face. You could not hide her here.” 

As well as Metodo 3 they are using the skills of British-based Control Risks Group. Dozens of agents worldwide were now working on the mystery for the McCanns, with more on standby.  In contrast, the Portuguese police have a relatively small team and at one stage it dropped to just six.  One obstacle to Metodo 3's efforts was Portugal's lack of a sex offenders' register.

Despite extensive enquiries and after following numerous leads however, Método 3 failed to unravel the mystery, they effectively failed to deliver on any of their promises.  Repeated requests by reporters to witness the agency's team in Morocco at work were always turned down.

One million posters of the artist's impression were to be distributed in Morocco and in Spain and Portugal - paid for by the News Of The World in exchange for its exclusive last Sunday revealing details of the man.  The response led to a series of leads being followed by Metodo 3 but the chances of finding Madeleine there were almost nil.


Poster: Madeleine's image has been widely circulated in her parents' campaign to find her
As interior minister Chakib Benmoussa, who met the McCanns when they visited in June, said: “There is absolutely no evidence Madeleine is here.”

A source close to the McCanns stated,  ''The harsh fact is that they were pinning their remaining hopes on Marco's outfit when they hired them on a six-month contract in September.  But, in the past few weeks, they have conceded that they might have been sold a pup. There's no doubt they've worked round the clock, but they don't have a lot of experience with this type of investigation."

In November 2007 Marco gave two lengthy interviews about the case, one to El Mundo and another to a Barcelona newspaper, La Vanguardia. Later whilst bristling with bravado before the television cameras, the portly boss of Metodo 3, sneeringly dismissed the Portuguese police investigation into the disappearance of the couple's daughter, Madeleine, as ''bumbling", and boasted: ''We know who the kidnappers are and we are very, very close to catching them."
 
Off camera, he admitted: "No, I can't disclose any more yet. But I will be proved right."

The Portuguese police initially tolerated the agency's investigations but later dismissed them as ''irrelevant small-fry" who ''lack credibility".
 
They were incensed by Método 3's allegation that Michaela Walczuch, the German girlfriend of Robert Murat, the only other suspect, was sighted handing over a blonde girl to a mystery man in Silves, Portugal, two days after Madeleine vanished from her holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, 25 miles away.
 
Another of their witnesses, they claimed, saw Ms Walczuch in Zaio in Morocco on 15 June 2007, shortly after the witness allegedly saw Madeleine there. Exasperated, the police disclosed that Ms Walczuch was at a Jehovah's Witnesses' meeting on that date and that she has threatened legal action against any publication suggesting she was involved in Madeleine's disappearance.
 
At the same time as police were pouring scorn on  Método 3 's investigations, Portugal's most senior law officer, the attorney general Fernando José Pinto Monteiro attacked the McCanns, insisting that their decision to encourage worldwide publicity for their missing child had probably served only to hasten Madeleine's murder.
 
''If she was kidnapped, it is likely her abductor has killed her," he said. ''All this publicity and with the whole world having seen Madeleine's photo means that there is a greater chance of the girl being dead than alive."

In December, Metodo were splashing the cash and moved to plush new offices as questions emerged about whether they were giving good value for money.  People who donated to the Find Madeleine Fund were seeing Metodo 3 pocket £50,000 a month without any apparent breakthrough.  The group had not yet produced any evidence to back up their claims that they knew who took the girl.

At a supposedly crucial stage in the inquiry, his luxurious new office - perched above a gay sauna in a grand, pillar-filled building - was in a make-shift state.  There was just one staff member in sight, and when asked if Sky News Online could see Mr Marco, she replied: "He's not here, he's out of the country on business. Not with the Madeleine case, on another case."
 
Her advice was to return in two hours, when the office would re-open.
 
But on calling back at 4pm there were three staff and a small dog in the reception area, as well as a steady flow of people unloading boxes of files and other office equipment.  They refused to say anything, and grew steely when Madeleine was mentioned.  A few minutes later, a smartly-dressed detective arrived and refused to discuss anything to do with the case.  He kept stressing: "I can't say anything. Only Clarence Mitchell (the McCanns' official spokesman) can talk about the case. I'm sorry."  It was late discovered that Marco was out of the country on another case.

Also in early December, a Portuguese lawyer from Madeira called Aragão Correia came forward with the dramatic news that he was sure that Madeleine’s body was lying in a reservoir.  He added various details which suggested that he ‘knew’ - as he had ‘been told’ - that Madeleine had been ‘stolen to order’ by a gang of ruthless paedophiles, who had then killed her and dumped her body at the bottom of the reservoir.  He provided the information to the police but claims that they were not interested.

In the end he decided to arrange for the reservoir to be searched and sought out a sponsor.  During the four days that the searches in the reservoir lasted, the divers only found a rope made out of blinds' strings and a piece of wood.  Marcos Aragão claimed that he spent approximately €5,000 out of his own pocket.  The search operation was sponsored by a Portimão-based company named SPEC.


Lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia (second from right) speaks with divers at the Barragem do Arade reservoir
located some 35 miles east of Praia da Luz, where Madeleine McCann disappeared on 3 May 2007.
It was reported that the McCanns had mixed feelings about the operation since they were of the belief that their daughter was still alive. However, Metodo 3 sent an investigator to the site and took possession of the items recovered by the divers.

Correia was later exposed as a fantasist when a source close to the inquiry revealed: "When we asked him what he was basing his evidence on, he said, 'I had a dream'."

Correia sparked further heartache for Kate and Gerry, when his divers fished a bag of animal bones out of the waters - then claimed they could be child's fingers.

The McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "We have never asked Mr Correia to conduct any searches and have good evidence to suggest his leads are not credible.

"The suggestion that the bones could have been a child's is entirely scaremongering and very hurtful to Gerry and Kate.

"Wild assumptions do not help the investigation. We will continue to work on the basis that Madeleine is alive."

Mr Moderator:
By early January 2008, The private detective agency hired by Kate and Gerry McCann was facing the sack after failing to come up with any real new evidence of what happened to missing Madeleine.  To date they had followed up a number of new leads and sightings of Madeleine with investigators on the ground in Portugal, Spain and Morocco.  The McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "We were unhappy with some of the public comments made by Método 3 and since then Francisco has made no further comments." Metodo 3 had cost the dwindling Find Madeleine fund £50,000 a month since September, but had so far failed to find any concrete evidence about what happened to the girl.  Its director Francisco Marco also angered the McCanns with a series of public boasts that he knew where Madeleine was and would find her within five months.



Método 3 boss Francisco Marco looking relaxed in his Barcelona office.
The agency's six-month contract was up for renewal in March and a source said: "We will carry on the search for Madeleine, but not necessarily with Metodo 3.

"We are stuck with them to the end of the contracted period. The question of whether it is renewed or not has still to be decided.

"They have faced not having their contract renewed every since Francisco shot his mouth off... It was made clear what they were doing was foolish and unhelpful."

 which was the not-for-profit company's biggest single expense.

He said the Find Madeleine board members and the McCanns' multi-millionaire backer, double glazing tycoon Brian Kennedy, would meet to discuss the contract in February.  "We are paying Método 3 £50,000 a month so of course it is a subject of debate. The decision is as much with Brian as it is with the fund, which pays for Método 3's involvement."

In February 2008, another Metodo 3 private detective, known as Antonio Jimenez or ‘Antonio J.R.’ (aged 53), working for the McCanns as their ‘detective in charge of special operations’, was charged with stealing 400 kilograms of cocaine - nearly half a ton - from an illegal shipment of 1,500 kg, said to have been worth £25 million, on a ship coming from Venezuela.  He had been Chief Inspector of the Drugs and Organised Crime Unit for the Barcelona police at the time those 400 kilos of cocaine went missing from the port of Barcelona.  But he had left the police to work for Metodo 3 in August 2005, just when an internal investigation was looking into how those 400 kilos had disappeared. He was remanded in custody by a Barcelona court on charges of breach of trust, corruption, corruption of public officials and illicit criminal association.

It had been the same Antonio Jimenez of Metodo 3 who had travelled to Morocco and, whilst he was there, was able - somehow - to find a number of witnesses who claimed to have seen Madeleine. It was around the time of Jimenez’s trip to Morocco that the Moroccan government took the unusual step of expelling a man who had been visiting hotels and garages in various parts of Morocco offering people money if they could claim to have seen a girl looking like Madeleine.  A coincidence, perhaps but Metodo's days were numbered.

In the end, the Metodo 3 contract was not renewed in March 2008, a new firm was about to arrive on the scene headed by Kevin Halligen.

Mr Moderator:
By July 2008, it was reported that Método 3 were the subject of a criminal process by the PJ in Faro, for suspected extortion and attempted murder. The case involved a former inmate who was paid by detective agency Método 3 to supply information that he allegedly had obtained in prison, from João Cipriano, the uncle of 8-year-old Joana, who disappeared from the Algarve in 2004.

João Cipriano allegedly told the former inmate that he owned recent photographs of Joana and that he also had information that was related to Madeleine McCann. After the money was received, the information was not given and the individual was tortured by detectives, filing a complaint with the PJ in Faro for attempted murder. The investigators from Método 3 were also suspected of persecuting Robert Murat for several months, trying to find elements to incriminate him. Tracking devices were detected on the Anglo-British citizen's vehicles.

In August the detective agency was considering sueing several of the media in the United Kingdom to defend its "reputation and good name" after the publication of information it believed defamatory, according to an official announcement.  Método 3 clarifies in its notice that it never received from the McCanns "the crazy figures" in fees that the press in this country published, and assures that the fees were €60,000 for six months worldwide search for Madeleine, plus expenses, giving a total of €108,306.
 
The Spanish agency also criticises the British press for stating that one of its founders "looked like a gangster", and indicates that this person suffers "a degenerative cerebral disease that, obviously, gives the appearance of absent-mindedness".
 
Método 3 assures that, contrary to what was published in the British press, nobody ever said that Maddie would be home by Christmas, but only expressed "the mere Christian desire" that "Hopefully she will be home by Christmas".

However, Clarence Mitchell has publicly stated that Madeleine's Fund were paying £50,000 per month to Método 3 - initially contracted on a 6-month contract, subsequently extended at a reduced rate.
 
By Mr Mitchell's figures, at least £300,000 has been spent on Método 3's services - yet Método 3 claim they have only received £84,627. And that figure includes expenses, which we have been led to believe were being covered by Brian Kennedy.
 
The substantial difference between the two sums have never been explained.


 

 

Mr Moderator:
In 2009, the Metodo was again under investigation in a case of embezzlement and money laundering and by the end of 2011, the firm was relieved of more than 30 boxes full of documents by Scotland Yard detectives.  Marco claimed that the boxes contained eight important leads but sources close to the British investigation denied they were of any real significance.


A photographer was on hand to record Scotland Yard detectives taking away 30 boxes of information
from the offices of Metodo 3 in Barcelona.
However, Método 3 again appeared in the newspapers six years after its name became synonymous with the world-wide search for Madeleine McCann. In February 2013, El Mundo revealed that it was the agency that supposedly contracted the former secretary of the PSC to record conversations between Alicia Sánchez Camacho, secretary of the PP in Catalonia, and Victória Alvarez, the girlfriend of Jordi Pujol Ferrusola.

Agents of the National Police arrested the head of the detective agency Método 3, Francisco Marco, two of his former employees, Julián Peribáñez and Alejandro Borreguero, and the former chief operating officer of the firm, Elisenda Villena, sister the legal adviser to the PSC, Ana Villena. The arrests, which were ordered by the judge who took over the criminal case, came hours after a meeting of top level police was held in Madrid.


Elisenda Villena, employee of Método 3, and Francisco Marco, head of the detective agency.

The detainees are accused of the crime of discovery and disclosure of secrets, in relation to the alleged spying case that occurred in July 2010 at the La Camarga restaurant. The president of the Catalan PP, Alicia Sánchez-Camacho and the former girlfriend of Jordi Pujol Ferrusola, María Victoria Álvarez, met for dinner in this popular Barcelona location. The conversation was recorded by a hidden microphone without their consent. Sánchez-Camacho, who presented a complaint to the police on Friday, positively identified his voice on the recording.

The investigators are convinced that Francisco Marco ordered the recording and that it was the detectives Peribáñez and Borreguero who technically carried out the act. In the illegally captured conversation, María Victoria Álvarez Martín told the Catalan PP leader that Pujol Ferrusola allegedly periodically transferred bags full of 200 and 500 euro notes to Andorra.

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