{"id":185599,"date":"2021-05-24T12:00:05","date_gmt":"2021-05-24T11:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=185599"},"modified":"2021-05-24T12:33:07","modified_gmt":"2021-05-24T11:33:07","slug":"a-united-nations-of-crime-in-spain-how-marbella-became-a-magnet-for-gangsters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/05\/a-united-nations-of-crime-in-spain-how-marbella-became-a-magnet-for-gangsters\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A United Nations of Crime in Spain\u2019: How Marbella Became a Magnet for Gangsters"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The new international crime organisations have made Marbella their centre of operations. And as violence rises, the police lag far behind.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Sunset at Porto Ban\u00fas. Photo: Harry Marx\/Alamy<\/p><\/div>\n

20 May 2021 – <\/em>O<\/span><\/span>ne morning last autumn, a dozen or so locals were eating breakfast at a cafe under a clear Marbella sky, in front of the offices of the Special Organised Crime<\/a> Response Unit (Greco), on the Costa del Sol. The property is nondescript \u2013 an unobtrusive building in a working-class neighbourhood \u2013 and only someone with a sharp eye for detail might notice the two security cameras monitoring the front entrance. The cafe\u2019s regulars drank coffee and ate toast, unaware that only 24 hours earlier, in another part of the city, Greco agents had rescued a man from a garage, alive, but with holes drilled through his toes. It was the latest local case of amarre<\/em>, or kidnapping, to settle a score between criminal gangs.<\/span><\/p>\n

That afternoon, in Puerto Ban\u00fas, the wealthiest and most extravagant area of the city, a young British man with ties to organised crime walked out of a Louis Vuitton store and found himself surrounded by a crew of young Maghrebis, \u201csoldiers\u201d from one of the Marseille clans. \u201cThey didn\u2019t want anything specific,\u201d he said. \u201cThey just stared me down and said: \u2018What\u2019s up?\u2019 They were looking for trouble. Things like this have been happening for a while now. It\u2019s getting really dangerous here,\u201d he said, with no apparent sense of the irony of a criminal complaining about criminality.<\/p>\n

On the same day, in New Andaluc\u00eda, one of the luxury housing developments on the outskirts of the city, next to the scorched shell of the Sis\u00fa Hotel<\/a>, which was set on fire in what seemed to be a settling of scores<\/a>, a Rolls-Royce sped through an intersection and smashed into an oncoming car. The driver, a young man in a tracksuit and tattoos, got out and inspected the damage, clutching three mobile phones and glaring defiantly at passersby.<\/p>\n

It was in the 60s, during Spain\u2019s economic \u201cmiracle\u201d and development boom, that the Costa del Sol was transformed into the tourist hotspot of southern Europe<\/a>. First, working-class holidaymakers thronged the public beaches. Then an emerging class of jet-setters found their piece of paradise in Marbella. The plan to develop the region succeeded, but success came with its own baggage. \u201cThis was the Francoist agreement,\u201d said Antonio Romero, an author and former politician who is one of the most outspoken voices against organised crime in the region. \u201cYou, the criminals, come here to relax, don\u2019t commit any crimes, and bring your money.\u201d And so, as the authorities turned a blind eye, Marbella became a premier destination for the global criminal elite.<\/p>\n

The Costa del Sol is organised crime\u2019s southern frontier \u2013 a stretch of urban sprawl extending from M\u00e1laga to Estepona, with Marbella, a city of 147,633 people, as its capital. According to the Spanish Intelligence Centre for Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime, there are at least 113 criminal groups representing 59 different nationalities operating out of the area.<\/p>\n

There is nowhere quite like the Costa del Sol \u2013 a long tongue of land stretching 55 miles between the mountains and the sea. To the south, less than 10 miles of open water separates the region from Morocco \u2013 the world\u2019s largest producer of hashish \u2013 and from the autonomous Spanish outposts of Ceuta and Melilla. Less than an hour\u2019s drive away is one of Europe\u2019s main entry points for cocaine, the port of Algeciras. Across the bay from Algeciras is the British overseas territory of Gibraltar, a tax haven<\/a> separated from Spain by a fence. To the north rise the M\u00e1laga and Granada mountains, Europe\u2019s main region for marijuana cultivation.<\/p>\n

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Three countries with Marbella at the center: Spain, UK and Morocco. DirecTo Spain<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe Costa del Sol is a kind of hub, or \u2018coworking\u2019 space, where almost every major criminal group in the world has some sort of presence,\u201d a senior National police agent investigating organised crime told us. \u201cIt\u2019s a UN of criminals for a globalised world. Marbella is a tourist brand, but it\u2019s also a criminal brand.\u201d Marcos Fr\u00edas, chief of the Central Organised Crime Brigade, said: \u201cIf a crime boss from Liverpool wants to traffic drugs on a large scale, he knows he has to make an appearance in Marbella. He doesn\u2019t have a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other side sees it the same way. \u201cThere are groups from all over the world here,\u201d said a member of the Camorra, the Naples mafia organisation, who has lived in Marbella for years. \u201cPeople of all different nationalities, doing all kinds of different jobs. We don\u2019t intermix, but we\u2019re constantly collaborating.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mobsters blend in with their millionaire neighbours. Marbella is not so much a rich place as a place full of rich people. A quick search yields 3,974 results for homes listed at more than \u20ac1m \u2013 that\u2019s 100 more listings than the entire city of Madrid \u2013 in a city where the per capita income (\u20ac21,818) is less than the Spanish average. The homes of the mafiosi are next to the homes of other millionaires who may have no connections to organised crime. Their cars are parked next to the cars of regular businessmen; their yachts dock in the same marinas, they eat at the same restaurants. \u201cOrganised crime, in large part, is invisible,\u201d said Ricardo \u00c1lvarez-Ossorio, a lawyer who has represented several members of Costa del Sol\u2019s criminal community. \u201cThey\u2019re rich, they live well, they spend money \u2026 Organised crime<\/a> has nourished and sustained Marbella. That and the sheikhs. And everyone has been fine with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent years, the situation has deteriorated. Bosses have started bringing their \u201csoldiers\u201d with them, who strut along the streets of Puerto Ban\u00fas or New Andaluc\u00eda. \u201cYoung gangsters, armed and really dangerous,\u201d said one member of Greco Costa del Sol. And it\u2019s not just the police who are complaining. The Naples mafioso who has lived in Marbella for years feels the same way: \u201cThe young guys who are coming here now don\u2019t live by any codes, they don\u2019t have any respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mafioso, who did not want to give his name (we have called him Francesco), had agreed to meet at a restaurant in Puerto Ban\u00fas, where he always has a table waiting for him. Drinking cup after cup of coffee, he said this new culture of delinquency is ruining the Costa del Sol: \u201cWhat\u2019s changed about Marbella is that now the lower criminal class is here. All these guys running around with their little bum bags, while their bosses are in Dubai.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is no question that the landscape in Marbella has changed, and that the arrival of this new community of criminals is at the root of the transformation. \u201cHere, you\u2019ll be eating at a nice restaurant, then turn to the table next to you and there\u2019s an Albanian with a star tattoo, then at the other table, there\u2019s a thug from the Irish mafia,\u201d said an agent from Greco. \u201cThe other day I was standing in line at the grocery store, and the kid in front of me turned around and he had a Kalashnikov tattooed on his forehead. It didn\u2019t used to be like that here.\u201d<\/p>\n

**<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

T<\/span><\/span>he most immediate sign of this change is a rise in violent clashes between gangs: \u201cThe violence is gratuitous. In the past, criminal groups negotiated, they talked to each other,\u201d said Antonio Rodr\u00edguez Puerta, chief of the Udyco Costa del Sol (the National police\u2019s drug and organised crime unit). \u201cThey\u2019d lose some of their supply, or one of their shipments, and they\u2019d come to an agreement. Now we\u2019re seeing that if something like that happens, in the majority of cases, they just go straight to killing.\u201d The rise in lethal violence is worrying the region\u2019s security forces. \u201cWe know that at any point, they could start attacking us, start shooting at us or settling scores against agents,\u201d a member of Greco said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The arrival of the gangs and their \u201csoldiers\u201d on the shores of the Costa del Sol has made an impact in other ways. \u201cFor the first time, the wealthy, the upper-class elites, they\u2019re leaving Marbella because they\u2019re afraid,\u201d said the lawyer Ricardo \u00c1lvarez-Ossorio. Last August was an especially bad month: \u201cEastern European gangs were breaking into homes all the time,\u201d \u00c1lvarez-Ossorio said. \u201cThere were robberies and assaults happening constantly. We call it \u2018black August\u2019, and I think it was really a turning point.\u201d<\/p>\n

A resident of an upmarket suburb in Marbella, who asked not to be identified by name, said she\u2019s afraid to leave anything of value in her home. \u201cI wear a lot of bracelets,\u201d the woman said, showing off each one and noting its value, each in the tens of thousands of euros. \u201cAnd when I go running, I cover them up with a wrist band. I don\u2019t leave them in the house.\u201d Asked if she ever thinks about moving, she said: \u201cYes. In fact, I\u2019m sure that\u2019s what I\u2019ll end up doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pandemic sped up Marbella\u2019s transformation. Last year\u2019s border closures left gang members trapped and their merchandise stranded. Streets that were normally crowded with tourists thronging to the city\u2019s restaurants, clubs and beach bars looked deserted. \u201cIt\u2019s empty here, there\u2019s no movement,\u201d a Colombian drug trafficker living in Marbella told us, sitting on the terrace at a local hamburger joint. \u201cThe border closures have caused exports [from South America] to drop. Here\u2019s an example: cocaine that leaves Brazil or Uruguay comes hidden in leather from Paraguay. And if there\u2019s no demand for leather, there\u2019s no way to get the cocaine out.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Cocaine packages on display in M\u00e1laga after being seized by Spanish police in 2018. Photograph: Jorge Guerrero\/AFP\/Getty<\/p><\/div>\n

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A steep drop in supply last year pushed cocaine prices over \u20ac33,000 per kg. It also caused a swarm of activity, as everyone scrambled to find alternative ways to get the drugs in. \u201cAfter Christmas, everything changed,\u201d said the Colombian trafficker. \u201cEverything that\u2019s been accumulating has started to get out, and now the market\u2019s flooded. The price of cocaine has gone down to \u20ac27,000. That\u2019s 25% cheaper than it was a few months ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not that Marbella is especially violent,\u201d said one police officer stationed in the city, \u201cbut it\u2019s very unpredictable. Patrol agents never go out without wearing bulletproof vests. Just throwing it in the trunk isn\u2019t an option any more.\u201d Marbella relies on a police precinct with far fewer resources than that of any of Spain\u2019s provincial capitals, despite much higher crime rates than most other cities. The Marbella police station receives about 150 calls a day, and handles about 32,000 cases a year \u2013 numbers typical of cities two or three times bigger.<\/p>\n

Lack of resources and personnel was the common complaint made by police officers interviewed for this article. \u201cWe only have four patrol cars,\u201d said one officer stationed in Marbella, \u201cand when [former prime ministers Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda] Aznar and Felipe Gonz\u00e1lez come for the summer, we have to assign them two officers for their security. We don\u2019t have enough bulletproof jackets. And there are lots of gunfights. We should get the same extra security designation the Basque country gets.\u201d The police predicament was not lost on the Naples mafioso: \u201cWe\u2019re way ahead of the police, we\u2019re not that worried about them. We have better resources, better technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is that we are always one step behind. So we try to make each step count,\u201d said the Udyco chief Rodr\u00edguez Puerta. A Greco agent was even more blunt: \u201cWe have nothing. The bad guys are miles ahead, and we\u2019re bound by all kinds of legal red tape. Every month we have to justify wiretaps, stops, surveillance. You ask a judge for 20 wiretaps and the whole court system collapses. Sometimes, it feels like all we have is a chihuahua, but what we need is a pitbull. In Spain, the crime bosses are totally at ease, living the good life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The increasing violence on the Costa del Sol has received little media attention beyond the local press. \u201cA few months ago, a Polish man turned up with gunshot wounds in both legs,\u201d said one officer. \u201cHe had been shot by a group of Swedes. He didn\u2019t file a complaint and didn\u2019t want to testify.\u201d Another case involved an Irish citizen who had been shot in the face in New Andaluc\u00eda. \u201cHe didn\u2019t want to be involved in the investigation. There are a lot of beatings and kidnappings. They happen in the suburbs, in the tourist areas, but they don\u2019t usually make the news because no one files a complaint or even talks to the police.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t report everything to the press, or it would create panic,\u201d admitted an agent with Greco Costa del Sol. \u201cThe majority of residents are unaware of the situation here, they don\u2019t have the slightest idea about what\u2019s going on around them, let alone the rest of the Spanish population. And maybe that\u2019s how it should be.\u201d<\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

P<\/span><\/span>ablo \u2013 who did not want to give his real name \u2013 opened his black Calvin Klein bum bag, spilling mobile phones of various colours and sizes across the restaurant table: two big ones that looked like smartphones and two little ones, basic, antique-looking. He arranged them in a row, and started to talk. For years, Pablo, originally from Colombia, has been moving 50kg of cocaine a week to markets in Spain, and now he is climbing the ranks, thanks to his contacts on the other side of the Atlantic, who are helping him bring in merchandise directly from the source. Within the Marbella ecosystem, he\u2019s a mid-level trafficker with certain typical characteristics: an ostentatious sports car for driving around Puerto Ban\u00fas, shirts featuring brand names such as Valentino, Dsquared2, Kenzo and Dolce & Gabbana, fancy sunglasses, hair in a side-parting with the sides shaved, a well-trimmed beard, a tracksuit, white sneakers and, of course, a batch of mobile phones.<\/span><\/p>\n

The phones are by far his most important possessions: they allow him to communicate with suppliers, buyers and people working for him, under the noses of the police, thanks to encrypted messaging technology. In the eyes of the Costa del Sol\u2019s criminal underworld, if you don\u2019t have multiple mobile phones, you\u2019re nobody. And when you sit down at a restaurant or bar, convention dictates that you lay them all out on the table \u2013 a warning sign for all to see.<\/p>\n

Tina, a young Colombian attracted by the Costa\u2019s atmosphere of wealth, first came to Puerto Ban\u00fas a few years ago, and used to manage public relations for some of the best clubs in Marbella, where narco extravagance is the name of the game. You have to see it to believe it, she said one morning sitting at a cafe, sipping fruit juice and dressed for the gym. \u201cIn the clubs frequented by los malos (the bad guys), a table reservation costs \u20ac5,000, drinks included,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat they do is they\u2019ll order \u20ac1,500 euro bottles of champagne or bottles of vodka or tequila, until they reach their table limit. But they always go over and end up spending more.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast summer, since there were hardly any tourists, the clubs were just full of those mafia guys who already live here and who go out partying every night. Their presence was a lot more noticeable. They\u2019re not classy people. The scariest and most violent are the English. And no one stops them because everyone\u2019s afraid. They wear trashy clothes and don\u2019t look like who they actually are \u2013 people who have everything: money, muscle, power,\u201d Tina says.<\/p>\n

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A Ferrari confiscated after an operation against the Russian mafia in Marbella.
Photograph: Reuters\/Alamy<\/p><\/div>\n

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Valets park the fanciest and flashiest cars near the front entrance \u2013 they are good promotion. Door security enforces a strict dress code, even a body code. \u201cFat people aren\u2019t allowed in,\u201d Tina said seriously. In the VIP areas, guests spend thousands of euros in a single night, and no one seems to care who they are or where they\u2019re from. \u201cThere aren\u2019t any door searches. People bring in guns, for sure,\u201d she said. It\u2019s a similar situation with drugs. \u201cThere\u2019s zero tolerance for selling, but consumption isn\u2019t really that restricted.\u201d And prostitution? \u201cIn the upscale nightclubs, it\u2019s absolutely essential. The clubs are full of rich men looking to get laid, and if there aren\u2019t any pretty girls, they leave,\u201d Tina says. But she also said that without all this, \u201cMarbella wouldn\u2019t exist. It would be like Torremolinos or Benalm\u00e1dena: normal middle-class tourism, tourism for wage workers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pandemic changed all this, said Pablo, the Colombian drug trafficker. With the restrictions and closures, he said that private parties in villas and chalets have taken the place of nightclubs. \u201cWhen a group does a job and it goes well, they want to celebrate and they want alcohol, drugs and women. And if there aren\u2019t any nightclubs, they do it at the villas.\u201d Hosts hire top DJs for rates that can exceed \u20ac100,000, and commission Michelin-Star chefs. Last March, a DJ died<\/a> at a private party in Marbella after he was shot by a stray bullet during an argument. When police arrived, the mansion was totally empty except for the body of the victim.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut all of this is just a phase,\u201d said Pablo. \u201cThe ultimate goal is to not be such a showoff, to make a nice life with a family, to live like the big bosses, where no one has any idea what you do. All that stuff about \u2018plata o plomo\u2019 [\u2018silver or lead\u2019 \u2013 take a bribe or take a bullet], that\u2019s just from the movies. That\u2019s really whose fault it is: all the TV shows and movies that lure young people to this world, thinking they\u2019re going to get rich.\u201d<\/p>\n

**<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

T<\/span><\/span>he Costa del Sol is home to more than 100 different criminal organisations. They range from extremely powerful, tightly structured mafias, like the Serbian, Morrocan and Dutch groups, to gangs of small-time burglars. Most groups specialise in one or more of the various activities that revolve around trafficking drugs: buying merchandise, protection and security, transportation, distribution, money laundering. Almost none of these groups can manage the whole process by themselves, which makes collaboration essential.<\/span><\/p>\n

A prosecutor in the region put it like this: \u201cAnyone who thinks that the criminal organisations are the same as they were before \u2013 structured like a pyramid, managing every aspect of the business \u2013 well, they\u2019re wrong. It\u2019s not like that any more. It\u2019s a lot more like in the TV series ZeroZeroZero<\/a>, where everyone has to form alliances and each group takes on certain things. They\u2019re not cartels, they\u2019re service providers: it\u2019s the Uberisation of organised crime.\u201d Because of this, there\u2019s also no division of territory. \u201cIt\u2019s not possible to make a map, like they\u2019ve done, for example, with Mexico,\u201d he says. \u201cInstead, you\u2019d have to make a diagram that reflects the division of labour, the different roles and activities of each organisation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The groups make alliances based on country of origin. Lower down the hierarchy are the smaller criminal gangs who often act as subcontractors. Marcos Fr\u00edas, chief of the Central Organised Crime Brigade, explained: \u201cThere are lots of groups who offer subsidiary services: procuring a gun or a car, having someone who knows how to drive 150mph, or who you can hire to beat someone up \u2026 \u201d Many of these gangs concentrate on activities like stealing watches and cars, or robbing homes. And some of them, like the youth gangs from Naples or Marseille, or the gangs from Romania or Bulgaria, travel to Marbella for a few months of the year to work the season, then return home.<\/p>\n

The groups in Costa del Sol, said one Marbella-based drug trafficker, \u201care talking with each other all day long, asking each other questions\u201d. Everyone knows everything, he said, \u201cand almost everyone knows each other\u201d. Meetings take place in discreet locations: shopping centres, fast-food restaurants or parks, or during a stroll through a public garden in a luxury development.<\/p>\n

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Officers of the Guardia Civil on the docks during a raid targeting the Russian mafia in Puerto Ban\u00fas in 2017. Photograph: AFP\/Getty<\/p><\/div>\n

While there might not be any clearly marked territories on the Costa del Sol, each group has its own stomping grounds \u2013 the businesses and other locations they frequent and control. And it\u2019s important, the trafficker said, sipping his drink, that everyone knows the rules. \u201cIf a Brit walks into an Albanian gym, for example, he\u2019s gonna have a problem.\u201d The Irish have their own pubs in Puerto Ban\u00fas; the Moroccans have their own bars, where there\u2019s no (public) alcohol consumption but they smoke shisha; the Colombians hang out at the shopping centres; the Camorra have their pizzerias, and there are specific hotels for English gangsters. The police know a lot of these places by name.<\/p>\n

Beyond its own frontiers, Marbella is inextricably linked to Dubai by crime. Most of the area\u2019s criminal groups live between these two cities. \u201cDubai is like Marbella but with no rules and no law,\u201d said one high-level Costa del Sol criminal. \u201cIt\u2019s extremely rare for them to arrest anyone there. It\u2019s only happened a few times, and always for some underlying political reason. Most of the top bosses live there, and then they spend the summer in Marbella. The soldados go to Dubai when they feel like they\u2019re under surveillance. We\u2019re protected there. There\u2019s no extradition.\u201d<\/p>\n

**<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

T<\/span><\/span>hey call it a \u201ccold wallet\u201d. At first glance, it looks like a normal USB flash drive, but in reality it\u2019s a device that can hold millions of euros in cryptocurrency. A cold wallet is an essential tool for anyone who wants to store large quantities of illicit money in a discreet place. It\u2019s \u201ccold\u201d because it isn\u2019t connected to any networks, so it can\u2019t be hacked or traced. Cold wallets are the latest trend in money laundering, an essential tool for criminal organisations who wish to convert illegal earnings into legal wealth. \u201cIf you have a room full of cash it\u2019s not worth anything \u2013 you\u2019re poor. You have to transform the cash to be able to use it,\u201d said an investigator with the Guardia Civil.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to cryptocurrency, there\u2019s the longstanding tradition of laundering money through real estate. A lot of the mansions on the Costa del Sol have companies with ties to organised crime behind them, a regional expert on money laundering with the Guardia Civil told me matter-of-factly. The tactic that gives security forces the biggest headache is false invoicing and fraudulent accounting. A criminal organisation signs an investment contract with a development or real estate company that it controls in some opaque way. The contract includes a clause stipulating that if payments cease, the contract is terminated. Over time, the organisation stops issuing invoices and the contract is rescinded. This is where police often lose the trail, because everything paid up to that point gets registered as profit and the money becomes clean.<\/p>\n

A police officer in Marbella told us that \u201cyour typical narco launders money by selling cars\u201d. But this approach comes with its own obstacles: in Spain, you can\u2019t make cash purchases over \u20ac2,500. In Germany you can, up to \u20ac50,000, and with fewer constraints if the purchase is made by a business. So a criminal living in Marbella sets up a company in Germany. That company buys cars from an official dealer in Germany and pays in cash. The company then ships the cars to Spain, where a partner based in Costa del Sol buys them. Mission accomplished: the seller keeps their commission, and the rest of the money, now clean and legal, gets sent back to Germany.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have agencies tasked with detecting money-laundering operations,\u201d the Guardia Civil agent said. \u201cBut it\u2019s impossible to stop all of it\u201d.<\/p>\n

**<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

D<\/span><\/span>rug trafficking is the Costa del Sol\u2019s core criminal enterprise \u2013 the nucleus around which all other activities revolve, and the area\u2019s main source of income. \u201cDrug trafficking is a global phenomenon, but Marbella is the capital,\u201d said an agent from Greco C\u00e1diz. The global trafficking networks connecting Colombia, the Netherlands, Italy and Dubai sooner or later all converge in Marbella. The Netherlands even has a special prosecutor based in Spain, which gives a sense of the region\u2019s strategic importance.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hashish is typically smuggled from Morocco in gomas (high-speed motorised rafts) and delivered up and down the coast by Andaluc\u00edan or Galician traffickers. The organisations behind these operations are based in Marbella. Cocaine is almost always smuggled in shipping containers through the port of Algeciras, while the bosses go about their lives only a few miles away. \u201cThe people who fund the operations are on the Costa del Sol. And not just Marbella, but other resorts along the coast. [There are private developments] where a lot of the world\u2019s big bankers and high-level drug traffickers spend the summer,\u201d said an agent with Greco C\u00e1diz.<\/p>\n

In Morocco, large organisations oversee the preparation of massive shipments of hashish, often in the thousands of kilos. (In Spain, 1kg currently sells for about \u20ac2,500.) \u201cAt a certain point,\u201d said Juan, a trafficker from M\u00e1laga who did not want to give his real name, \u201cthey hand the product over to us, and it\u2019s up to us to get it into Spain. At that point, the merchandise is my responsibility and I\u2019ll die before I let someone take it. When the drugs reach land and are in a secure location, I contact the organisation and, using whatever codes we\u2019ve agreed on, I deliver the drugs to their people and they pay me my cut in cash.\u201d<\/p>\n

Groups do this to avoid theft and vuelcos<\/em>, or ambushes \u2013 a drug trafficker\u2019s greatest fear. \u201cA vuelco by another organisation is much more common than a police raid,\u201d Juan said. \u201cAs soon as you agree to the job, the most important thing is discretion. The fewer people who know about it, the better. If word starts to spread, you\u2019re fucked, they\u2019re gonna come for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

To protect against vuelcos, groups will sometimes hire security, which, on the Costa del Sol, is usually contracted out to the Naples Camorra. \u201cWe guarantee the success of the operation, and are paid in advance,\u201d said Francesco, the Camorrista. \u201cEveryone knows that if something happens with the shipment, there will be consequences. If you try something, we\u2019ll kill you. Usually, the shipment has a GPS tracker. If at any point the signal disappears, we kill you,\u201d he said nonchalantly.<\/p>\n

Once on land, the drugs are loaded into sports cars stolen by other gangs and transported to the guarder\u00edas or warehouses where they\u2019ll sit until ready for delivery. \u201cA lot of [the warehouses] are in Seville,\u201d said Pablo. Other times, the drugs are stored in secret caches in the mountains that surround M\u00e1laga, where shepherds are hired to keep watch and to send word if anything goes wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeliveries involve a system of prearranged codes,\u201d Pablo said. \u201cFor example, the organisation will give you a card with a sequence of numbers that corresponds to another card, which they keep. Before you tell them the location of the product, they have to send you a photo of the code, so you know it\u2019s actually them. Then, when they pick up the product, they have to show it to you again. I carry mine tucked in my cellphone case.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNormally we deliver the drugs back to the original owner and then they sell them,\u201d said Juan. \u201cThey\u2019ll arrange a meeting with English, French, Italian or Russian buyers, then sell them portions of the shipment. A 1,000kg shipment will go to dozens of buyers. Once it hits land, it should only sit for a week, at most. If it sits any longer, it can be dangerous. Sometimes, the buyers will come and pick it up themselves, but the owners don\u2019t tend to like that because then you might become friends with the buyer and start dealing with them directly. I don\u2019t do that kind of thing, but the French guys do it a lot,\u201d Pablo said. \u201cI don\u2019t want any headaches. Once it\u2019s delivered, we disappear. Then the Moors load it in their Audis and drive like bats out of hell, 150mph non-stop all the way to Paris. You try to stop them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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How many murders can a police informer get away with? Read more<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
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Cocaine usually enters in shipping containers exported from Latin America. The containers are almost always owned by food distribution companies. One container, or a portion of a container, will arrive pre\u00f1ado<\/em>, or pregnant, with drugs. \u201cOnce it\u2019s offloaded at the port, and with the help of a worker we have on payroll, they send us the code and we open the container and take the drugs,\u201d Pablo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo smuggle in large quantities, you have to have someone in your pocket,\u201d Pablo added. \u201cThe organisations have people in the Guardia Civil, the National police, customs agents and dock workers. There\u2019s a lot more corruption than you\u2019d think.\u201d Another method of importing drugs is to use small boats or other watercraft: speed boats, camouflaged fishing boats, or even submarines<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Faced with such opposition, agents are constantly complaining about the lack of resources in what they say is an unequal fight. \u201cIt\u2019s easier to organise a drug-running operation than it is to investigate one,\u201d said one Greco agent. \u201cThere should be one agency solely dedicated to tackling drug trafficking, like the DEA [the US Drug Enforcement Agency]. If we\u2019re the main entry point for all of Europe, how is it we don\u2019t have something like that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever they do,\u201d said Francesco, \u201cnone of this will ever stop. Drug money is what makes the world go round.\u201d<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/p>\n

Nacho Carretero is a freelance writer and documentary maker.<\/em><\/p>\n

Arturo Lezcano is a freelance journalist based in Spain, who worked for 12 years as a correspondent in Latin America.<\/em><\/p>\n

Translated by Max Granger. A longer version of this article first appeared in <\/em>El Pa\u00eds<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Go to Original – theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

20 May 2021 – The new international crime organisations have made Marbella their centre of operations. And as violence rises, the police lag far behind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":185600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[652,1268,1624,2132,2059,250],"class_list":["post-185599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","tag-crime","tag-european-union","tag-mafia","tag-mediterranean-sea","tag-organized-crime","tag-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}