A well-placed Portuguese source confirmed this week's operation was scheduled get underway tomorrow but said some preparation work may take place beforehand
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Madeleine McCann detectives begin fresh search for the missing girl where she was last seen
Fresh police searches are due to start tomorrow near the spot where
Madeleine McCann was last seen.
German police are said to have requested the searches, expected to take place between Praia da Luz where the three-year-old vanished on May 3 2007 and a house near the holiday resort where principal suspect
Christian Brueckner used to live.
A well-placed Portuguese source confirmed this week's operation was scheduled get underway tomorrow but said some preparation work may take place beforehand.
He said: 'They will be land searches only. The main objective is to look for any signs of Madeleine's body.'
Sources said the searches would take place on more than 20 privately-owned pieces of land near to a ramshackle rented cottage on the outskirts of Praia da Luz where Brueckner spent several years living before 2007.
One said: 'The search will take place on 21 privately-owned pieces of land which in some cases are open and not fenced off. Wells, ruins and water storage tanks will be searched.'
Portuguese police are understood to have agreed to cooperate with the search after it was approved by the country's judicial authorities following a formal request from German cops and prosecutors.
The search is expected to last around three days unless anything relevant emerges.
It will be the first search in Portugal for more than two years, following a near-week-long operation involving Portuguese, German and police officers at a remote dam a 40-minute-drive from Praia da Luz.
The searches in May 2023 at Arade Dam, an 'area of interest' that Brueckner reportedly called his 'little paradise', came to nothing.
It is not clear if detectives are now acting on a new tip-off about where Madeleine’s body could be.
While German investigators made the unusual move of naming the convicted paedophile as a suspect in the case, he has not been charged.
Brueckner's prison term is set to end with his release this September - much earlier than prosecutors had hoped for after he was acquitted of unrelated sexual offences in court last October following a trial.
The convicted rapist is no longer being held in solitary confinement as he nears the end of his sentence.
With Brueckner's release looming, pressure is mounting on prosecutors to charge him following explosive revelations in a Channel 4 documentary and evidence found in a former factory, which authorities believe may link him to Maddie's abduction.
The materials, unearthed at a disused box factory in Germany, include a vile catalogue of depraved documents, children's clothing, small bikes, and more than 75 swimsuits and toys believed to belong to young girls.
Some were reportedly buried beneath the body of Brueckner's dead dog, which was exhumed during the police search.
'The clock is against the case here and investigators do not want to see Brueckner walk free,' a source told The Sun.
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