Portugal's secretive communes in Algrave could unlock the mystery behind Madeleine McCann vanishing.
Hippies once flocked to the area in the 1960s and the area continued to become a haven for drop-outs and off-griddeers, with drugs and crime prevelant.
Now it has been revealed that investigators discovered a “relevant clue” to the case of the missing girl during their search of a reservoir in the area, reports the Daily Mirror.
Prime suspect Christian Brueckner, 45, hung out at the communities in the mid-2000s, where he helped to organise raves in the forests and peddled drugs to nomad partygoers.
While in the area the German paedophile also burgled houses, sold flowers in weekend markets and stole fuel.
When Madeleine went missing from Praia da Luz in May 2007, the twisted beast was living a nomadic lifestyle in a Volkswagen Westfalia camper van nearby. He was known to frequent Praia do Barranco, an isolated beach 20 minutes’ drive from where Madeiline went missing.
The large waves that batter the coastline in the remote area make it a popular haunt for surfers and travellers.
One local said: “It’s beautiful but can be proper shady at times. It’s a hippy hangout. They have raves there all the time, not massive ones but they are going all night.
“Every drug imaginable is available if you know the right people.”
After he was named as a suspect the police released a photograph of him in his van parked up at the beach.
A friend previously said: “He loved it down there. The remoteness, the people, the drugs. It was heaven for him.”
Brueckner spent time in Barao in the dwelling of a German family when they were not at home. He is also understood to have had a relationship with a woman who sold flowers at the Sunday market and also helped on her stall.
A local in the area has said that the pervert given drugs to underage teenage girls in the area in exchange for sex. The woman, who did not want to be named, said he was known as the “go-to” man for cannabis and class-A drugs, often acting as a middle man for dealers.
She said: “It was a favour exchange. He provided joints and they had sex with him because they had no money.”
A fellow hippy Michael Tatschl provided details about Bruckner’s time in the Algarve in the mid 2000s.
The Austrian said: “He had lost the house but he was still enjoying living in the area. I think that confused the police a little as they were not sure where he was living exactly when Maddie vanished.
“Basically he had his VW Westfalia and was living free, going to raves and selling drugs to the local party crowd.”
Mr Taschl moved to the Spanish enclave of Orgiva in early April 2007, only weeks before Madeleine vanished. He said Brueckner turned up in “late May or early June” in a motorhome.
The reservoirs that supply water to the Algarve are also on the trail, and rarely visited by tourists. Hippies are attracted to the idealic surroundings where they can camp and take drugs in peace.
One of them, Barragem do Arade, was the location of this week’s search by German and Portuguese police.
A local man, Joao Alemeida, whose father owns a smallholding near the reservoir, said travellers often party in the region.
“They hook up sound systems to the batteries of their vans and rave all night,” said Joao. “It’s the perfect spot. There aren’t many neighbours who will complain about the noise. They can get up to all sorts.
“To be fair, they don’t leave much rubbish behind and keep themselves to themselves.”
Officers spent three days searching the site last week and it has been alleged that yesterday they found a “relevant clue”. Portuguese media said the mystery clue this week will be analysed by scientists in Germany.
Other iterms being tested include a bra strap, pieces of clothing and plastic items, according to daily newspaper Correio da Manha. The move comes as German prosecutors attempt to find evidence linking Brueckner to Madeleine’s disappearance.
He was a regular visitor to the reservoir, which is 50 minutes’ drive from Praia da Luz, describing it to friends as his “little paradise”. It is understood an informer is said to have directed police to the reservoir and specific sites around it, where they used drones, ground penetrating radar and sniffer dogs during the operation.
The search was concentrated on two places of interest, one of them a shaded picnic area popular with off-grid campers, and the second more isolated site, is an undergrowth on the same peninsula. However, German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said it could take weeks for results of the tests to be known.
Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann are being updated by Scotland Yard on the search. Brueckner is serving a jail term in his home country for raping a pensioner in Praia da Luz, denies any involvement.
He was also awaiting trial for a string of rapes and child sexual assaults allegedly committed in Portugal. The charges were dropped last month after a court ruling over who had jurisdiction in the case, but prosecutors are confident it will be overturned on appeal.
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