Police are digging at a favourite haunt of prime suspect Christian Brückner, the man-made reservoir at Barragem do Arade, thirty miles from where Madeleine disappeared in Praia da Luz. He described it to friends as his "little paradise" and was seen often in his campervan spending the night in the search area. The Portuguese broadcaster, SIC, has stated that British police officers were also present. The area in question has already been searched twice by divers hired by Marcos Aragao Correia, who apparently has connections with the underworld, who told him Madeleine's body had been thrown into the lake.
Alan Wilson, dive team leader, stated: "You can't see anything down there..divers are searching entirely by touch." A source familiar with the case is not optimistic about the outcome: "It will come to nothing," he said.
Christian B. would frequent the hamlet of Foral, near Albufeira, where he smuggled cannabis in a secret compartment of his vehicle. In a statement all too redolent of Jeremy Bamber, he claimed:
"I'm the most known bad person in the world and I did nothing-well almost nothing. I wasn't kidnapping anybody and of course I wasn't killing anybody. I made some silly mistakes when I was younger, but who hasn't?"
A 2008 search of the reservoir found a bag of small bones, but these were found not to be human.
Operation Grange has cost British taxpayers £13 million to date. Scotland Yard dug up an area of wasteland surrounding the Ocean Club resort nine years ago.
