Police given extra money to investigate new Madeleine McCann lead
Scotland Yard has been afforded extra funding after an “important” lead in the Madeleine McCann case.
The renewed investigation is based on a tip that a gang of European traffickers snatched the then three-year-old.
The tip-off is considered so significant that metropolitan Police officers have briefed Whitehall officials on the case, according to The Sun.
According to reports, this may be the “last throw of the dice” in the search for McCann, who went missing while she was on holiday in the Algarve in 2007.
A source told the paper: “This is an important new line of inquiry which could provide an explanation on whether Madeleine was abducted and transported away.
“It raises hope that she could still be alive.”
Retired Yard detective Colin Sutton added the extra money for means “there must be something worthwhile”.
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The tip suggests that an “order for a young girl” was placed by a gang days before her disappearance.
Madeleine McCann would now be 13 years old.
A friend of the McCanns said: “Trafficking into Belgium and North Africa has always formed a very strong part of the investigation.
“There is definitive hard evidence that this is happening and they have looked into the fact someone was targeting children and may well have been stealing to order.”
Former Prime Minister David Cameron set up Operation Grange — the investigation into her disappearance — in May 2011.
But earlier in the year, Met commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said the £12million probe may come to an end.
At the time, the McCanns said: “Until we have answers, until there is news, there will always be hope and we will do everything we can to help find Madeleine.”
