He arrived, shot and fled. In the early hours of October 5, a hooded man burst into a nightclub in Estepona (Málaga, 74,493 inhabitants) armed and wounded one of the establishment’s customers in the foot, from which he escaped in a silver gray Volkswagen. The violent scene is no coincidence in this town in Malaga, where organized crime has become established in recent years. Episodes related to drug trafficking are also occurring with increasing frequency. The discovery of an arsenal with more than 50 weapons in a city apartment this summer is an example, like the usual caches on the beaches. “Crime is moving, little by little, to Estepona from Marbella,” emphasizes a police officer. Another highlights that the Marbella town, however, continues to be “the capital” of drug trafficking on the Costa del Sol. According to the Ministry of the Interior, crime grew by 6.5% in Estepona between 2019 and 2022.
Criminal organizations have found in Estepona a refuge to operate with their illegal merchandise, labor to use for the stashes and hiding places for the bales, fleeing from the greater police pressure in Campo de Gibraltar. Investment in brick-and-mortar by international mafia front companies is a constant threat. Some drug traffickers have also moved their residences to the town. This is what some of the members of the criminal gang made up of Britons who tried to murder three Irish people in Turtle Lake – on Marbella soil – did in September 2022 and who were arrested earlier this year by the National Police.
“Drug trafficking now moves indistinctly from one place to another,” explains one of the police officers who fights organized crime on the Costa del Sol. Another agent highlights, for example, that a good part of the hashish stashes that reach the Malaga province they do it on beaches in the municipality of Estepona. The choice is due, according to specialized sources, to the fact that this is a quieter coast, with less tourism and has more isolated areas where operations can be carried out away from other people’s eyes. There are neighbors, like those around Guadalmina, who notify the Local Police, National Police or Civil Guard, tired of the nighttime movement near their homes. Their calls are repeated more and more. “The residents are very worried and fed up,” says an Estepona police officer. This is confirmed by the ‘La Rada’ sport fishing association, with a hundred members. They report that drug traffickers steal their boats to bring gasoline to drug boats on the high seas. “Some later appear in Malaga or Algeciras, another had migrants on board. They take them and do whatever they want with them,” report sources from the entity, who emphasize that there are days when they see the gangs operating in broad daylight next to their boats. “Someday a misfortune will happen,” they warn.
“In Estepona, more shipments have been intercepted lately because that coast is somewhat more inhospitable,” says Carlos Tejada, Marbella’s anti-drug prosecutor, who points out that the Marbella city “is more popular because it is a much more media-intensive place, but it is hardly different from operational level with Estepona”. As an example, Tejada remembers one of the most important cases in recent years, that of the so-called ‘Los Suecos’ clan. They were tried this past spring for two murders: one of them committed in Marbella and another in Estepona. “In the end they don’t care, for them it’s all the same,” says Tejada, who highlights the “great police work” and, also, the difficulty of ending the large presence of drug trafficking on the Costa del Sol for decades.
The Special Response Group for Organized Crime (GRECO) is based on this coastline, as well as members of the Drug and Organized Crime Unit, both from the National Police. The Organized Crime and Anti-Drug Team (EDOA) of the Civil Guard also works. They all fight against international gangs dedicated to trafficking hashish and marijuana, although increasingly also cocaine, as shown by the 700 kilos found in the living room, next to the sofa, in an apartment in 2019. They are usually armed. “In drug trafficking it is day to day,” says a specialized investigator, who highlights that pistols and revolvers have become increasingly common in searches. The operation Rambo confirmed it: this summer the discovery was announced, in an apartment in Estepona that has been uninhabited since November 2021, of fifty weapons, including eight submachine guns and 12 shotguns, in addition to 15 silencers, 30 balaclavas and two beacons. His destiny, organized crime, is no secret. There are more episodes, such as that of the two people who were injured after they were hit by a car full of bales during a police chase in September 2020. Or when, a month later, a group of drug traffickers attempted to kidnap a member from a rival gang and, when they failed to do so, they shot him in the leg and arm, as a warning.
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The greater presence of drug traffickers collides with the weak Estepona Local Police. It is not their main function, but they face significant organized crime. “We have to coordinate with the Civil Guard or the National Police almost illegally because we can barely do anything: there are very few of us,” explain sources from this security body, who point out how this summer there were several incidents between rival gangs, such as when a group burned the door of a luxury home. “We believe that it was a warning to their rivals,” they say from the Estepone police, whose representatives in the Professional Union of Municipal Police of Spain have been complaining for months about the long shifts they must fulfill, the lack of resources, the shortage of agents in the street. “More than one Friday there has been only one patrol for the entire municipal area, with almost 80,000 neighbors and urbanizations everywhere,” explain sources from this body. The shortage of personnel and the increase in drug trafficking are also already part of the local political debate, as shown by the questions asked on the subject by the opposition spokesperson, the socialist Emma Molina. Most, without response.
The agents report that sometimes they face episodes related to drug trafficking in a clear minority or that domestic crime also surpasses them. They give as an example the man arrested a few days ago for trying to burn his partner and his daughter or the fight in the city’s port on October 22 between two people that ended with one of them transferred to the Costa del Sol hospital with seven injuries. by knife. “Only four police officers could attend. It is a danger,” denounce the same sources. The Estepona City Council has refused to answer the questions posed by this newspaper about the increase in organized crime and the shortcomings of the Local Police.
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