SCOTLAND Yard detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have returned to the Algarve for the first time since quizzing four suspects at the start of July.
The Operation Grange detectives arrived in Faro yesterday on a BA flight from Gatwick before picking up a hire car and driving to their hotel.
Only a small team of three officers - led by Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood - made the trip.
They were due at Faro Police Station early today (TUE) for a meeting with Policia Judiciaria counterparts.
The meeting - described as "routine" - follows the appointment of a new woman prosecutor to the case. Ines Sequeira has yet to approve a fifth letter of request sent by British authorities earlier this year.
Mrs Sequeira took over from predecessor Jose Magalhaes e Menezes last week and has told colleagues she views the Madeleine McCann case as a priority.
British detectives - who are understood to want to re-interview three of the four Madeleine McCann suspects they questioned in July - are expected to press for a quick 'yes' to their new bid to crack the seven-year-old mystery of Madeleine's disappearance.
It is thought the Operation Grange detectives may seek a meeting with her before they return to London.
Family photograph of Madeleine McCann, who went missing on Thursday, 3rd May, 2007
A source close to former GP Kate and consultant cardiologist Gerry, both 46, has said they think the appointment is a "step in the right direction."
The new Scotland Yard trip to Portugal comes after it emerged the cost of the British police search for Madeleine will top £10million - double the original amount estimated by the Home Office when the force was called in by David Cameron in 2011.
The Operation Grange inquiry is running in parallel with a new Portuguese probe, reopened in May more than five years after being shelved.
The reopening of the investigation in Portugal coincided with news a former employee at the Ocean Club holiday resort in Praia de Luz where Madeleine vanished, had been identified as a suspect.
Recovering heroin addict Euclides Monteiro, a convicted burglar, died in a tractor accident in 2009.
His widow Luisa Rodrigues was interviewed by Portuguese detectives but insisted he was an innocent man and has been fighting to get authorities to confirm they have now ruled him out as a suspect.
Portuguese police believe Madeleine was snatched by a foreigner no longer in Portugal, although the Cape Verde immigrant is still officially a suspect.
They have privately dismissed the British police work, which involved digs and sewer searches for her body in June in Praia da Luz, as "senseless."
The Home Office has defended the rising cost of the British police probe, insisting: "The Government believes it is right that it does all it can to support the search for Madeleine McCann."
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| British police arrive for a meeting with Portuguese police in Faro, Portugal today |
Only a small team of three officers - led by Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood - made the trip.
They were due at Faro Police Station early today (TUE) for a meeting with Policia Judiciaria counterparts.
The meeting - described as "routine" - follows the appointment of a new woman prosecutor to the case. Ines Sequeira has yet to approve a fifth letter of request sent by British authorities earlier this year.
Mrs Sequeira took over from predecessor Jose Magalhaes e Menezes last week and has told colleagues she views the Madeleine McCann case as a priority.
British detectives - who are understood to want to re-interview three of the four Madeleine McCann suspects they questioned in July - are expected to press for a quick 'yes' to their new bid to crack the seven-year-old mystery of Madeleine's disappearance.
It is thought the Operation Grange detectives may seek a meeting with her before they return to London.
A source close to former GP Kate and consultant cardiologist Gerry, both 46, has said they think the appointment is a "step in the right direction."
The new Scotland Yard trip to Portugal comes after it emerged the cost of the British police search for Madeleine will top £10million - double the original amount estimated by the Home Office when the force was called in by David Cameron in 2011.
The Operation Grange inquiry is running in parallel with a new Portuguese probe, reopened in May more than five years after being shelved.
The reopening of the investigation in Portugal coincided with news a former employee at the Ocean Club holiday resort in Praia de Luz where Madeleine vanished, had been identified as a suspect.
Recovering heroin addict Euclides Monteiro, a convicted burglar, died in a tractor accident in 2009.
His widow Luisa Rodrigues was interviewed by Portuguese detectives but insisted he was an innocent man and has been fighting to get authorities to confirm they have now ruled him out as a suspect.
Portuguese police believe Madeleine was snatched by a foreigner no longer in Portugal, although the Cape Verde immigrant is still officially a suspect.
They have privately dismissed the British police work, which involved digs and sewer searches for her body in June in Praia da Luz, as "senseless."
The Home Office has defended the rising cost of the British police probe, insisting: "The Government believes it is right that it does all it can to support the search for Madeleine McCann."
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