Dutch man held in Spain over murder-for-hire plot against ex-wife

A Dutch man was arrested in Spain on the suspicion that he was planning to have his ex-wife killed. He was caught out when his minor daughter found his plans for the murder on her smartphone, and warned her mother, RTL Nieuws reports.

The Dutch man, who was staying in Alcaniz in northeastern Spain, was arrested last Saturday. He had borrowed his daughter's smartphone for a time, because his was broken. When she got it back, she found incriminating messages of how her father planned to have her mother killed, according to the broadcaster. She showed these to her mother, who went to the police.

The man already paid 2 thousand euros to an assassin from Mexico. The plan was that the assassin would fly to Spain at the end of May and kill the Dutch man's ex-wife. After the murder, the Dutch man would transfer more money through a bank account in the United States. He also thought of getting an alibi - he planned to be at a shopping center at the time of the murder, so that he could be filmed on security cameras.

Why the Dutch man wanted to have his ex-wife killed, is not yet clear. He and his Algerian wife got divorced around 18 months ago, according to RTL.