She was snatched to order..

Susie Boniface In Praia Do Luz, sundaymirror.co.uk 28/10/2007

EXCLUSIVE THE SEARCH FOR MADELEINE DAY 178

Private investigators hired by Kate and Gerry McCann believe Madeleine was snatched "to order" and has been smuggled to Africa.

The detectives - who have solved several missing child mysteries - are trawling through lists of Portuguese paedophiles who may have stolen Madeleine for a wealthy client and taken her to Morocco - where a blonde girl fetches a high price.

They are NOT looking for UK sex offenders.

Kate and Gerry hired Spanish detection agency, Metodo 3, last week and asked the firm to probe all possible explanations for the four-year-old's disappearance.

The Barcelona-based experts believe a rich North African commissioned a Portuguese sex offender to kidnap Madeleine on the night of May 3 while her parents were at dinner.

They suspect an insider at the Ocean Club resort, where the McCanns were staying, tipped off the paedophile ring after realising they left their children alone at certain times in the evenings.

A source said: "When people think private detectives they think retired coppers sitting in a grotty office above a pub.

"Metodo 3 are the very opposite of that. They are proper operators.

"In terms of finding Madeleine, they are looking at known Portuguese paedophiles - not Spanish, French or UK sex offenders. The main line of investigation centres on the belief that Madeleine is most probably being held against her will somewhere in the north of Morocco.

"A blonde girl is a valuable commodity in a place like north Africa. If she has been bought, she is alive. We cannot offer any information on who that client is at this stage, but we suspect the person who took her did so with the help of someone connected to the Ocean Club.

"That person would have been able to build up a picture of the McCanns' movements over the week before the disappearance."

The probe coincides with a massive £80,000 ad campaign in southern Spain - the area which the detectives think Madeleine's kidnapper would have travelled.

The Spanish port of Tarifa is just a 35-minute fast ferry ride from Tangiers in Morocco and is a known people-smuggling route.

Portuguese police on its border with Spain were not told of Madeleine's disappearance until May 4, the day after she went missing, leaving the crossings open.

Anyone with any information about Madeleine McCann can call the Metodo 3 hotline on 0034 902300213 or email maddie@metodo3.es