4 March 2005

SANTIAGO - Chilean police are looking for an elderly former convict who allegedly provided fake documents to a suspect in the Madrid train bombings.

According to the Spanish daily El Mundo, Teodoro Alejandro Navarrete Tarifeñas, 74, provided Jamal Ahmidan, a suspect in the Madrid commuter-train bombings that killed almost 200 people, with a fake Belgian ID.

According to the newspaper, the Chilean may have left Spain shortly after the attacks and travelled to Chile.

Police spokesmen said in Santiago Navarrete is a career criminal with convictions going back to 1950.

He last entered Chile in June 2002 and is likely to be there still, they said.

Now that a connection to the Madrid bombings has been uncovered, an all-out effort to find him is under way, the spokesmen added.

Known as Don Doro in police files, Navarrete was first arrested in 1950 on a larceny charge, and aggravated robbery and homicide charges also appear on his record.

According to the Chilean newspaper La Tercera, Spanish police believe Navarrete forged thousands of high-quality identification documents.

Some 40 Spanish passports, 60 ID cards and more than 300 bank checks were found in his workshop.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news