Jay Slater’s desperate dad is calling on Interpol to get involved in the search for his son.
Jay went missing on June 17 after telling his friend Lucy Law he had missed the bus, cut his leg and was now “lost in the mountains.” He said he was about to run out of phone battery and needed water.
The area is so large, Jay’s dad Warren emphasised, that it would take an “army 10 years” to cover it all. “I’d employ a team of Gurkhas,” Warren, 58, added. A search by the Spanish authorities ended last weekend after 14 days.
Warren also called on Interpol, the world's largest international police organisation, to “get involved.” He has been searching with Jay’s brother Zak and a small group hiking through the valleys close to where Jay was last seen.
He said: “We need to, as a full family, do a proper press conference and ask the British authorities to help. He’s a British citizen. Get Interpol involved.
“It’s just us. I haven’t got a team. We need a team to come over here and find out for us what the police are doing and what we need to do. Our hands are tied over here, we need experts. How long can you stay here for? It’ll take an army 10 years to cover all this.”
He told how they had been on “two wild goose chases” yesterday to abandoned buildings when they hoped Jay could be. Warren continued to voice his frustration at the local police investigation, calling for British cops to get involved and help the family.
After spending the morning scouring mountains in the Los Carrizales Valley the small search party stopped for a quick lunch in the village of Santiago del Teidi - before heading back into the hills. They have moved on from the Valley of Barranco de Juan Lopez, close to the village of Masca, where Jay’s phone last pinged.
The night before he went missing, Jay stayed in the the Rural de Teno Park in an Airbnb with two British men. Warren would like them to be interviewed by British police.
The Airbnb Jay visited was rented by convicted drug dealer Ayub Qassim. He has previously said: “I let the geezer stay at mine because he had nowhere else to go.
“His friends had all left him. I know Jay, through friends, I'm not going to bring someone back to mine if I don't know them. I'm doing the geezer a favour and now my face is all over the news. It's a bit mental. I haven't even done anything.”
Qassim added: “The only comment I have to make is that Jay came to the house alive, and he left the house alive.”