MADDIE CLUE DIG
POLICE looking for Madeleine McCann began a painstaking search yesterday as a drought lowered water levels at a reservoir.
The worst dry spell in years is seen as key to the cops securing a breakthrough at Portugal’s Arade Dam.
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Sources close to the investigation said they were led there by “credible” new information — and that there were signs the dragnet could finally nail German prime suspect Christian B.
Portuguese and German search specialists, monitored by Scotland Yard detectives, are working on a theory that convicted rapist and paedophile Christian B snatched Madeleine, killed her and dumped her body at the beauty spot he called his “Little Paradise”.
The three-year-old vanished from her parents’ holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in May 2007.
Christian B, 45, is known to have regularly parked his yellow and white VW camper van in a car park close to the water’s edge — a 45-minute drive away.
A Portuguese source told The Sun: “The search is being taken very seriously and is being controlled totally by the Germans.
“They are so sensitive about this information they did not even disclose the exact location of the search area until shortly before work started.
“They asked Portuguese officers assisting them to look for any evidence — but specifically rags.”
A German source added: “The initial thought was that this was a last throw of the dice.
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“But the arrival of top German BKA officers (Federal Criminal police) and the role of Scotland Yard suggests they have credible information.
“This is also not a spur of the moment move.
“They have been planning it since the start of May.”
One British investigator believes the search is the most promising development in years.
Jim Gamble was the UK’s top child protection officer and oversaw a review of the Madeleine case that led to the creation of the Met Police’s current probe, Operation Grange.
He said: “I think we are looking at the best chance we’ve had in 16 years to find out what happened to Madeleine.
“They must have something definitive.”
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Mr Gamble, now CEO of the INEQE Safeguarding Group, added: “The search is significant because of who is leading it.
“German authorities, prosecutors and investigators are normally very conservative.
“So when they do say something definitive you know they have the additional information.
“They have been absolutely adamant on two things — one, they have the right suspect, and two, that Madeleine is dead.”
German police arrived in a convoy of blacked-out Mercedes vans and 4x4s at around 8am.
Federal officers hid their identities with bandanas as they passed photographers.
Portuguese police divers were expected to conduct underwater searches but all work observed yesterday was on a strip of land uncovered by falling water levels.
Digging — focused on an area of exposed reservoir bed measuring around 200 square yards — began in earnest at around 9am.
Officers formed a line and scraped at the soil inch by inch.
A Portuguese fire service boat was nearby, with divers expected to carry out a search by hand in pitch-black water.
Sonar gear was also ready to be deployed.
German cops had ordered the operation after forensic analysis of Christian B’s “secret lair” in a ramshackle factory in the German village of Neuwegersleben.
Police raided the site south-east of Hanover in February 2016, searching for the body of missing five-year-old Inga Gehricke, who vanished while on a family outing in Saxony-Anhalt in May 2015.
Detectives discovered more than 8,000 images and videos on USB sticks and hard drives filled with vile child abuse images.
Some have now been linked to the dam site.
A row of tents was set up on the car park after police cordoned off the area and ordered a no-fly zone to shield it from drones.
Plain-clothed officers — one with what appeared to be a large white evidence bag — were seen moving among the search teams.
At least two sniffer dogs were drafted in.
Meanwhile the investigator who first alerted Portuguese cops to the dam site blasted their blunders.
Lawyer Marcos Aragão Correia offered to help Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry in 2008, having been touched by their plight.
He spent thousands on two underwater searches by a private firm, which were said to have found nylon rope weighed down with rocks and bags containing bones.
But his plea for a more extensive search has been ignored until now.
Mr Correia said: “We cannot count on the state, especially the Portuguese state, to help us if something bad happens to our children.
“There is clearly the example of Madeleine McCann, abandoned at the highest level by the Portuguese state — and her parents, clearly innocent, persecuted.
“After 16 years of institutional neglect, only a miracle could now find Madeleine McCann’s remains.”
One of his divers was 51-year-old Martyn Falkous, originally from Knaresborough, North Yorks.
He said: “I hope somehow this can be closed.”
Christian B is in jail for the 2005 rape of a US pensioner in Praia da Luz.
His lawyer Freidrich Fulscher insists he had no involvement in the McCann case.
Asked about the latest events, he scoffed: “Let them search — it’s good weather down there.”
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