Suspicious death policemen taped

Police officer accused of killing a Cartagena resident told a colleague - also implicated in the case - that he had an unlicensed pistol ' to do the dirty work'.

The conversation between two of the six suspects arrested in connection with the death of 43-year-old Diego Pérez had been recorded by an internal affairs investigation, after the officers had fallen under suspicion. The internal affairs report, leaked to state news agency EFE, allegedly shows how officer José Antonio C.G told his colleague José Luis A, that the gun dated back to the Spanish Civil War.

"If they put the details into the database, it will appear that it was Franco who shot him or that it was Primo de Rivera who killed that bloke," José Antonio C.G is reported as saying.

In a conversation with another colleague, José Antonio C.G stated that the victim had been a ' junkie' and someone with a police record.

The body of Sr Pérez was found floating in Cala Cortina - between La Manga resort and Cabo de Palos - in March.

According to a National Police press statement, the corpse showed clear evidence of violence, which occurred before death.

The body had been in the sea for at least ten days before it was recovered.

Sr Pérez had called the National Police early in the morning of March 11 because some neighbours were allegedly threatening him.

The officers reported that he was 'very nervous and pent up' but they had not seen anyone on his property, so they had left.