Claudio Bonifacio arrested.....

A band dedicated to expolio of sunk boats falls

The actions lowered thanks to the prisoners

By, FERNANDO PEREZ AVILA

Seville. ?1561. Ship Santo Antonio. Seville. Shipwreck in the Guadalquivir?. Fast, nervous, red handwriting blue on a small card of archivist who becomes yellowish with the passage of the years. He is one of 3,000 documents on shipwrecks that the historian had in his power Claudius Bonifacio, Italian settled down in Seville and now stopped by the Civil Guard like presumed member of a band of delinquents dedicated to expolio of submarine archaeological rest. They are the seven members of this organization that have been arrested in this second phase of the operation Bay.

Bonifacio had managed to complete an enormous collection of sunk boats worldwide. For it it used almost 30 years of work, most of them between the File of Indians and the Protocol of Notary's offices. The historian got to say publicly that no longer some needed file to know where they could be left rest of boats. He counted on a series of navigation charts, among them one of the coast of the end San Vicente marked by done crossings ball-point pen. Each cross marks the more or less approximate point where it sank a boat, reconstructed through letters, newspapers, stories of survivors?

An excellent work of historian with illicit aims. The Civil Guard surprised Bonifacio sleepy in his house of Triana and there same she found him, in addition to the documentation, a GPS, a detector of metals very falsified, a measurer of resistance of the subsoil, prisms binocular with incorporated light, cartography, a notebook with annotations and some pieces of archaeological rest. The technological equipment was inside a knapsack that the agents got to baptize like kit of the expoliador.

In his three files of green color they appeared, divided according to the zone in which still they remain the rest, Spanish, English, French and Dutch ships that take centuries resting in waters of the Straits of Gibraltar, next to the Cabo of San Vicente, in the Caribbean, the Pacific and until in India and the Philippines. Of some there are bibliographical references, in almost all they appear the name of the captain and the load that took. Of others one only knows to the name of the boat and the year in which one sank.

The historian was an indispensable piece, the man who provided the key information so that the rest of the band could locate the treasures that soon sold. The pieces had their buyers. In this case one was North American companies, among them the Odissey company, announced in its day its intention to recover the treasures of the HSM Sussex, 1694 in the Straits of Gibraltar with a gold shipment silver and that the ship sunk - the experts think that he took ten tons of gold and one hundred of silver, that could be valued in 4.000 million euros.

The prisoners are the heirs of the pirates of the Louisa, the boat that already was catched at the beginning of year by the Civil Guard as a result of the sale of ten Spanish tubes and from that expolio on great scale in the Straits was organized. Some of the prisoners, among them Claudius Bonifacio and the ringleader of the band in Madrid, Jose Valero, appeared in mass media in several occasions, to the thread of that first stage of the operation Bay. Simply they were rival of that band that fell and tried to eliminate the competition assuring that the business of the cazatesoros had entered decay.

Four people have been arrested and more imputed in Madrid, where a bullet of tube of century XVII has been confiscated, rest of amphoras, a sonar of lateral sweeping, daily navigation charts and of work. In Algeciras a professional submariner and with him fell a robot of submarine shooting to remote control with capacity to work to a depth of 500 meters. Another people have been imputed more in Cabo de Palos (Murcia), where the Civil Guard found a trap, plates and recipientos coming from shipments of ships and necks of amphoras Roman. Also there was a halting in Real City. The Sevillian historian completes the list, perhaps the man who knows more in the world on sunk boats.

tube = cannon
bullet of tube = cannonball
Bonifacio is a shipwreck researcher in Spain.
 

Sorry, but that's a Google translation from a Spanish newspaper. The alternative is to read it in Spanish, so it's better than nothing.
 

fleamistress
If we are going to possibly libel somebody or warn people, could we do it in common contemporary English at least. You know, so we can read it? ::)
Cyn
*******************
?? It is quit clear flee gal. try archaic spanish for real fun or even my spanglish/tayopanese - there is a "real" challenge. hehehehehehehh

cazatesores = treasure hunter

Till Eulenspiegle de La Mancha
 

They need to arrest Pawel Novak next.
 

Well well well. Now we discover that the complainant (a Spanish) of my "arrest" is a close friend of Odyssey Marine, and his address is the same as Odyssey in Tampa. Oh, what a coincidence. Really, you believe in coincidence? I do not!
Cheers VV

Google Translate
 

Vox veritas said:
Well well well. Now we discover that the complainant (a Spanish) of my "arrest" is a close friend of Odyssey Marine, and his address is the same as Odyssey in Tampa. Oh, what a coincidence. Really, you believe in coincidence? I do not!
Cheers VV
Click to expand...

Claudio Lozano recently did some contract work for Odyssey, and he had no relations with Odyssey in 2006. As you can see below, he lives and works in Spain.

Claudio Lozano Guerra-Librero
Stratigraphy Area, Faculty of Experimental Sciences, University of Huelva, Spain

http://shipwreck.net/pdf/OMEPapers26-2013_001.pdf

http://shipwreck.net/pdf/OMEPapers27-2013_001.pdf
 

Last edited:
I 'm sorry, I had to laugh when I read this. (..for allegedly stealing artifacts) half the guys I know on this forum are Pirates.
This thread is over 6 years old. Apparently he was not convicted, so why are we even bringing up this alleged act???
Time to move on to something else in my humble opinion.
 

Good Luck. Will be an interesting tale to read up on.
 

Little by little we know the reasons which caused my arrest in 2006.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From the book "Detectives RIP" by the author Juan Carlos Arias (Published with permission of the author)


Claudio VS Claudio (Case Bahía 2-Odyssey Explorer)
Claudio Bonifacio is an Italian born in Trieste, the ancient free territory 'between the transalpine republic and the old Austro-Hungarian Empire after WWII. It is a traveled man, cultured, educated ... Handles with several languages fluently. In his sixties, its privileged mind is full of projects, logic, consistency and common sense. Bonifacio lives of its claimed status of privateer in the XXI century. These, corsairs were licensed boaters kings and emperors to capture treasures. Bonifacio lives in Seville and knows very well the Archive of the Indies. It feels, for history who has the last years, like Christopher Columbus or Alessandro Malaspina, two compatriots punished centuries ago by the Spanish Crown which served loyally. When in the eighties lived in Grand Canary happily married, his father-in-law was awakened his interest in sunken galleons in those islands. The routes of ships sniffed in Seville. Time will deployed its analytical capacity to become treasure hunter taking a quoted located hundreds of wrecks sunk. Bonifacio published a documented book, 'Galleons with treasure' (Muñoz Moya & Montraveta, 2007), where little loose garment their findings. But the work is cited and used with pleasure for teachers and academic researchers, lawyers and lawsuits for underwater treasures and a legion of fascinated by underwater archeology.

The effort that transformed his life took navigate Bonifacio through the Strait of Gibraltar, the Portuguese coast, Galician and especially by American. Inland is located treasures in Paraguay, Bolivia and Panama, buried after wars and military uprisings. As a historian of medieval shipwrecks and contemporary was hired by European and American universities, companies looking for oil offshore fields and states such as Cuba or Italy, to lay cables or recover assets immersed in sovereign waters.

About Bonifacio should be added that, only at the beginning, raises if behind his carte blanche pirate uniform looming eye patch, peg leg and scarf. After some initial suspicions rating would you grow your aura to created a character who humbled and honored to be far lets you survival. A journalist with a keen eye christened him naufrologo (shipwreck specialist). Alternatively, Arturo Perez Reverte, journalist turned-author of bestsellers, say they conceived a character on the path of Bonifacio in his novel The Nautical Chart. The narrative reveals similarities Burying the author with a silence that never steals glory. But Claudio Bonifacio carries a heavy burden since 2006. It is the worst hack that can undergo who lives in his honor and prestige, the unique heritage of a free lance who collects commissions based on their credibility and professionalism.

One day he was arrested, after many where Bonifacio weirdos lurking suspicion about his home address and controlled his mailbox on the house where he live. They proved to be Civil Guards of the Central Operations Unit (UCO) displaced from Madrid investigating the so-called 'Case Bahia 2'. Bonifacio household manuals were seized files and computer, backpack and marine charts by court order. The work of decades was path to the dependency of the C.G. headquarters in Seville-Montequinto. There he was interrogated exquisitely when agents and managers warned that it was not a any offender. The humiliation involved for anyone who has ever had problems with the police or judicial deprivation of liberty is a trauma redirects hardly any psychotherapist. Subsequently, the 'Case Bahia 2' demanded a staging to sell the police operation with more arrests, seizures and spread for a table which convinces the citizens it safe you feel with our security forces, chaired by operational excellence. We assume. But it seems that the presumption of innocence does not count acts supporting uniform with medals and emblems of their bodies large for that of aggrandizement and presence media.

A packed press conference presents Bonifacio and other 'buddies' as despoilers of sunk galleons in the Cadiz coast. As was to take credible action advertising of the C.G. at the table illustrating the seized in 'Bahia 2' Bonifacio placed a backpack with a sign: 'kit of the spoiler '. Would have been more logical cylinder diver, a diving suit or a wetsuit. For sake of completeness, as Bonifacio retains its Italian nationality, Spanish patriotism is unquestionable as we shall see, spokesmen spoke with tricorn an 'international' plot Bonifacio joined the crew of Americans and Hungarians mother ship 'Louisa' and auxiliary 'Gemini' that justified the 'Case Bahia 2' months earlier. On February 1, 2006 the 'Louisa' was addressed in the Port Santa María (Cádiz) by UCO Civil Guards who failed to seize the treasures suspected would be on board. Only they were outlined four rifles on board a ship to defend, precisely from pirate, riots and stowaways. The 'international frames', 'criminal organization' and 'settling of accounts' spokespersons are aided arguments justifying spectacular police operations. The reality informs that are criminal causes unspecific for unknown or not sufficiently investigated. It is similar to medical diagnosis one vague 'virus' when the doctor does not know what happens to the patient. The press bonding Bonifacio became the 'Case Bahia 2 'and it was a ruin that extends for ten years as of 2015. Its criminalization in the 'Case Bahia 2' canceled contracts, he dropped advanced projects that cooking with US universities.

Suffers, Bonifacio, loneliness and paranoia own any unjustly accused. He suffers from anger and cries out for justice It is slow and has bags which often get to them or who were in wrong place at wrong time. They knew that the 'Louisa', championed by Saint Vincent & Grenadines - a Caribbean archipiélago country known as convenience for ships-, where the ship owners save millions in tax and legal obligations, chartered by the Texan John Foster, the owner of JBF Holdings Inc. entrepreneur dedicated, among other businesses, to the exploitation of oil and gas fields.
Foster, through its subsidiary Sage Maritime Scientific Research, contracted with TUPET and subsequently the company PLANGAS SL. The first was represented by Luis Valero; the second by Aníbal Beteta. The contractual object was sampled seabed search fossil fuel deposits duly authorized by Spanish authorities. Via intermediaries, Valero and Beteta outsourced to experts in sunken treasures as Bonifacio, crew, divers and technicians. The police approach to 'Louisa' was a disaster for expectations of the controls of UCO and Sea Civil Guard units who supported the operation from the water.

Not finding what was suspected, treasures extracted from seabed, officers and agents of the C.G. phoned from the vessel to his confidants that led them to arms as justified only minimally so spectacular operation. The 'Case Bahia 2' resulted in nearly thirty defendants, some belonging to the C.G. by revealing secrets by those calls aboard the 'Louisa'. In 2015 any defendant they issued precautionary measure, nor considered to pay bonding requirements. Judges and prosecutors who know the teaser, containing thousands pages, in the Court of Instruction No. 4 of Cadiz, do not know, or do not decide anything conclusive because ten years after there is no apparent illegal instruction. At least this is the view a lego lawyer. Bonifacio, since 2006, is another. He pursues a slander which clouded his work and livelihood. As a good researcher has doubts, suspicions. He has written and spoken with hundreds of people to know the deep down business conditions his freedom and honor. Some teachers university moved rumors about the origin of 'Case Bahia 2'. The first complainant confidential accused of being a man salary of 'Odyssey Maritime Exploration', an American company of treasure hunters based in Tampa (Florida) and ordered to return to Spanish State in 2012 $ 500 million in treasure pillaged from a Spanish galleon. Odyssey traded and sold 'spikes' when it finds a wreck. Its president, Greg Stemm, a competitor of Foster and others entrepreneurs in search of treasures in Spanish waters. The track Bonifacio knew about the 'man for hire' of Odyssey to confirm it could distort the 'Case Bahia 2' transforming in a war of pirates booty. While Odyssey got away after almost ten years of plunder in Spanish waters which came to him in wins, the 'Case Bahia 2' nullified unwelcome competitors, criminalized technical and efficient curtain of smoke that diverted attention to the misdeeds of Odyssey. This company came to highlight seven vessels for their improper efforts and docked, as agreed by them, in Sotogrande (Cádiz), Gibraltar, Faro (Portugal) and Tangier (Morocco).
 

Scan_Pic0001.jpg

First page of the report of Detective Juan Carlos Arias
 

The first act of the drama began in 2003 with the signing of an agreement between SEA HUNT INC. and the Ministry of Culture of Spain for Spanish frigates JUNO and GALGA. I participated in the negotiations of this agreement.

Convenio SEA HUNT - Cultura 01.jpgConvenio SEA HUNT - Cultura 09.jpg
 

Claudio Vs Claudio part 2

Besides suspicions Bonifacio, to Spain came a problem on the ITLOS (International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, by its acronym in English), headquartered in Hamburg (Germany), to account 'Case Bahia 2'. In 2010 the state championed by 'Louisa' (Saint Vincent & Grenadines) sue the Kingdom of Spain for nearly thirty million dollars to compensate the illegal boarding vessel, no return in time to the shipowner, lost profits and regain their seaworthiness. It was the first time a signatory to the UN Convention on Rights of the Sea claimed the Spanish State, which also signed this international covenant. The matter was going badly. The defense of the plaintiffs headed the prestigious American maritime lawyer S. Cass Weiland and his team. Spain designated the lawyer Concepción Escobar Hernández, Professor of International Law at the UNED and UN advises. Also Mariano Aznar, another professor and expert lawyer in international maritime disputes led a specialized firm in such matters. In May 2013 the ITLOS sentenced, after intense discussions of the judge, access requests of the flag of 'Louisa' not have jurisdiction to do so. The decision of the ITLOS sentence litigants to pay each hand, half a million dollars for expenses that originated the lawsuit. We suspect that Spain also have cost him a peak of bills of Escobar and Aznar, his countless journeys, Rates hotels, diets and meals in Hamburg plus their respective legal teams. Moreover, opinions circulated that required to avoid the blow that would surely an outraged Foster. the American considered it an affront to all the Spanish licenses he had for his business venture in Cadiz waters. What happened in Hamburg is one of the steps of a lawsuit (summary of the 'Case Bahia 2') that some defenses of defendants considered 'very technical'. In the eyes of any chronicler of events or lay analyst would a procedure extends far in time almost 10 years of drift hearing of oral argument, even locate any of the accused, dismiss defendants admitted after failures and irregularities that cause a slow justice is even more so. So it seems to those inside and outside the record. Bonifacio, perhaps guided by your intuition and suspicions that transmitted friends and experts, kept mulling over research the complainant's 'Bahia Case 2'. I just knew thereof was a singular young underwater archaeologist working for his account, which appeared and disappeared in specialized forums and Spanish territory. The 'man of Odyssey' was called as Bonifacio, Claudio. He claimed to be a historian from the University of Huelva, doctor, master, university professor and ubiquitous international explorer for wrecks ...

The other Claudio, according to a profile that is hung on the net, had few years to many adventures of a rival Indiana Jones submarine with the academic background to seduce investors, television, universities, institutions and cultural foundations. Claudio Bonifacio decided to hire the author [of this book] to establish suspected links between a complainant and Odyssey, pirates the XXI century shipwrecks in Spanish waters plundered by turbid official and foreign complicity. Odyssey was reported once by Bonifacio and other experts for their illegal activities. The detective asked about Claudio fom 'Huelva'. His last name were rare and unite with script to round possible aristocratic origins. The province of Huelva was the first scenario which investigated this Claudio. Before he turned 30 years several small companies linked diving and archaeological interventions, private passions that character. Their current leaders spoke neither good nor bad guy. In another company came through female reasons, according outspoken and human resources experts. It was recommended as manager and his management did not deserve the renewal of the contract to collect incidences in a hurry to make money, puts unemployed friends and lacks the worth and humility necessary for the job. The company ended up bankrupt, its hundreds of workers on the street and this was fortunate to escape the fiasco days before of substantiated. Days after his managerial stage to the other Claudio this detective lose track because it departs from Spain on board of a ship of treasure hunters plying the Caribbean. The base of the company was in Tampa (Florida).What a coincidence! It's the same lair precious treasure hunters and Odyssey. Without many details to identify their fingerprints, these adventures This Claudio counted his own when he returned to Huelva. Distinction made between family members, telling them about that and others researching in archives and museums in Europe and staying in luxury hotels. It was a mystery who paid both travel and ostentation. His small house in a beach of Huelva falling apart supporting mortgage and taxes were paid on time money from the United States. Claudio, from Huelva, made a ruling that took the detective to reveal it to Bonifacio. A former friend the Huelva guy cleared his lies the researcher, had collaborated with the SEPRONA (unit of Guardia Civil expert in environmental crime and urban) documenting allegations of historical topics exchange for certain favors that favored their strange activities and shady business. In addition, this former friend provided an address in Tampa resulting be the corporate headquarters of Odyssey. At the end of the report the detective included another revealing fact: 'whitened' with that exaggerated academic curriculum which boasted recovery treasures from a Spanish ship that apparently and centuries ago, wrecked in the Florida Keys.

His name appeared next to the owner's Odyssey, his wife, a diver using this company plus a teacher at a 'college' of Florida. The work was spread on a corporate publication of Odyssey distributed among its investors, shareholders, customers, press, American and foreign universities and institutions. This Claudio was the 'man of Odyssey'. There was no doubt. The detective substantiate their work further on the vague legal ratification of this Claudio in 2010. Four years earlier, in 2006, denounced the SEPRONA a ship called 'Louisa', docked in Puerto de Santa María, plunder archaeological heritage in the Bay of Cadiz. That paucity required more data on the interest of the complainant and the serious consequences of his claim by the teaser that he originated and how fast UCO-Guardia Civil from Madrid activated its investigating alerts. Of the Huelva Claudio deserves to be almost play the ratification court of their complaint: "In a casual conversation in a bar in the port of Mazagon before a group of known and others that they were not the subject of the existence of numerous wrecks emerged with sunken treasure in the Spanish coast. One individual were making extraction of underwater heritage by area of Puerto de Santa María. They know the name of that individual. The declarant states that given the strangeness so move him revealed without any self interest he communicated to SEPRONA. That that individual did not elaborate that transmitted by the respondent. Who spoke of a sunken fleet called Constable, who was unaware of the details. What quoted the ship (Louisa). Although he is an archaeologist by profession was versed in the art. That they did not cite any name on particular individual. "
The short of it is that 'I tell you what I've heard from someone anonymous'. Had rankings selective memories, forgetful and amnesic, this Claudio win by a landslide.
The detective concluded that the complainant threw the stone and hid hand. Its American ties and evidence with Odyssey portrayed him as 'his man' in the 'Case Bahia 2'. Other data that cooled the detective's report were that Odyssey had complicities and strange 'licenses' that vaccinated him Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to prosecution, reports of archaeologists, the Junta de Andalucía, Navy and Ministry of Culture and the duration of her predatory impunity in Spanish waters between 1998 and 2009. The 'diplomatic key' that gave them such credit was difficult negotiations on the joint sovereignty of Gibraltar between Spain and the United Kingdom. Another excuse used Odyssey to 'throw' the Spanish was licensed by the British Admiralty to locate the remains of HMS Sussex, sunk near the settlement three centuries ago. So, the 'Case Bahia 2' seemed an effective smoke curtain launched by Odyssey to eliminate competitors criminalize experts (including Claudio Bonifacio) and overlap their depredations on the rights of other treasure hunters licensed by Spanish authorities, which is the case of 'Sea Hunt' presiding by Peter Knollenberg. The treble that could Odyssey to the 'Case Bahia 2' was masterful. A provincial detective had nosed up links friendly between two Majorcan who had acted on behalf of lobby settled in Madrid and emerging from a law shaft who stopped all the shots that common sense surfaced outside Spain, specifically in the courts of Tampa where he was finally Odyssey ordered to return what was not his property. The ninguneo on the report of the detective's note. For this reason appears this story here. Illustrates that the obvious way, logical or full of common sense does not interest the bureaucracy of power. The court of Cádiz that instructs the 'Case Bahia 2' on the report of the detective decided to defer any decision. Calls upon appropriate procedure to assess the apparent contamination the complaint which led to the summary. This legal profane unknown if this is a possible crime which starred his accuser for alleged perjury and procedural scam. The millions of euros that cost portfolio of all Spanish proceedings and summary proceedings for ten years (including payments charged to their defenses, attorneys, experts and official opinions) are adrift looking for who will pay this duck or madness, depending how you look. To this should be added almost another million euros that has cost the Kingdom of Spain before the ITLOS demand for legal costs and the costs of his defense. Our righteousness, so quick to incarcerate criminals poor, enact as appropriate social alarms or relativize crimes of 'white collar', dodge admit that they have cast a goal from the first minute. And all at an honest privateer who hires a detective must whose sole mission was to discover hidden truths too many eyes. More stories about the adventures and handling of Odyssey on land Spanish waters and worth reading them in checked Working skipper and maritime lawyer Lorenzo Pipe Sarmiento titled Odyssey File (Cultiva, 2012). The 'Case Bahia 2' still has chapters to write. Is pending trial to be held almost ten years addressed in port 'Louisa' at best. They are the drop files and dismissals a few defendants who are on almost initial thirty defendants. A Claudio Bonifacio defends a lawyer, Servando Meana Perez, who besides knowing the intricacies of the law knows register as keeper of his client not to mess it a new goal. In 2015 and beyond, many years after germination the 'Case Bahia 2 ', the war of the Claudios start in the XXI century. the Corsair against lackey pirates. The fight will be in courtroom, not board nor any galleon submerged wreck hunting for new treasures. Can not conclude this account of treasure hunters, pirates and privateers without finding that the best reports about the story star Claudios were developed by Isabel Laguna (EFE) and Agustin Rivera (elconfidencial.com).
 

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