Families launch appeal to find missing men

THE SEARCH continues for two men who went missing two and a half months ago after sailing out from Torrox.

The families of Joaquín Espinosa Ruiz,  a 24-year-old from Cadíz, and Antonio Jesús Moyano Pérez, aged 30 from Vélez Málaga, have made a public appeal to find the two men.

The two men set off from El Peñoncillo in Torrox –Costa on June 27. According to the mother of the younger man, he had got in contact with Moyano in order to buy a boat from him, which was berthed in the dry-dock in Torrox.

His mother, Maribel Ruiz, said: “He had just got his sailing permit, and had told me that he wanted to buy a boat.

“He had looked at a lot on the internet and this was the first time he had gone out to view one with the owner.”

In the immediate aftermath of the men’s disappearance, the coastguard used helicopters to carry out a thorough search of the coastline from Tarifa to Almeria but without success.

Sra. Ruiz continued: “It’s as if the boat has been abducted by aliens, because it had a radio beacon which is meant to be infallible.

“I’m desperate, I’ve searched all over Morocco but there’s no trace of him or his companion.”

The 24-year-old is in the military, and based in Ceuta, the Spanish city on the North African coast.

The wife of Moyano Pérez added that her husband left his mobile phone in Espinosa Ruiz’s car in the dock, and that they have not heard from him since.

She said: “He’s never been away for more than a day. We have three small children between the ages of four and eight.

“He was selling the boat because we need the money.”