In what could lead to the first arrests in the case, the Met want to question the three men who were in the area of the Portuguese resort in Praia da Luz where the British girl vanished while on a family holiday on May 3, 2007.
Mobile phone records show the men, who are believed to be Portuguese, made an unusual number of phone calls to each after three-year-old Madeleine disappeared, according to the Daily Mirror.
The British Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has sent an International Letter of Request to Portuguese police seeking permission to arrest the trio or ask them to explain the mobile phone calls made on the night Madeleine disappeared. The CPS had previously written to Portuguese authorities seeking permission to access phone records of the three men.
A spokesman for Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann described the letter as a “significant development”.
“It is necessary for British police to request the Portuguese authorities allow them to operate on their turf,” the spokesman told the Mirror.
“It means they have the intention of arresting and interviewing X, Y or Z. We don’t know who they have their sights on but it’s likely it is the burglars. Whether the Portuguese will co-operate remains to be seen. It is a very sensitive issue with differences they have had.
“Police want to be given a chance to arrest key suspects. It doesn’t prove they have Madeleine but it will rule them in or out of the investigation and that is important. Kate and Gerry don’t want to build up their hopes too high but they realise it could be a significant new lead.”
The three men are thought to have been living in the Algarve area when Madeleine vanished from her holiday apartment while her parents were dining in a tapas bar 90 yards away.
It is claimed that in the days before Madeleine vanished, the burglary gang raided another holiday flat in the Praia da Luz village where the McCanns were staying, disturbing a child. That child’s parents reportedly interrupted the burglars who fled.
No formal arrests have ever been made in the high profile hunt for Madeleine, but there have been numerous false leads. Any arrests would be the first since Scotland Yard set up Operation Grange in 2011 to review Madeleine’s disappearance.
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