Close-up The buoyant business that revolves around the more than 600 drug boats: "Small hashish traffickers have turned to petaqueo"
Close-up Putting 'doors' on the Guadalquivir: Marlaska's latest invention so that drug boats do not reach Seville
Prosecutor Ana Villagómez knows well the ins and outs of drug trafficking from her work in Cádiz for 35 years, 25 of them as deputy anti-drug prosecutor, a position that expanded its scope to all of Andalusia, Ceuta and Melilla in 2019. She is, therefore, one of the most expert voices on the subject for her work in one of the territories hardest hit by drug trafficking. With his long career, it could give the feeling that he has already seen it all and nothing surprises him. But it is not like that.
Drug violence is on the rise. We have seen it in the latest shootings in the middle of the street on Isla Cristina and the Costa del Sol and the recent Report of the Prosecutor's Office also warns about it.
Well, I still continue to surprise myself and what you mention is, precisely, the most striking thing. Real arsenals of war are being seized that far exceed the need to defend drugs. Even grenades have been located, why do they need them? But it is not one or two, but a lot of them, also Kalashnikov and very dangerous weapons of war, with ammunition. When this happens, you see that everything imaginable is exceeded.
A few years ago, drug traffickers were focused on hashish trafficking. Has the jump to cocaine already been made?
Yes, and that generates more violence because cocaine has a higher price. There are organizations both of origin, from South America, and from the countries in which the drugs will be distributed. They are international organizations, from Eastern countries that are based here, along the coast. All of this generates more violence and more use of weapons. We are in a very large magnitude due to the weapons seized.
What is the ecosystem of drug networks like? How do local groups and clans settled in Cádiz, such as the Castaña, coexist with international gangs?
Here the people who were dedicating themselves to hashish trafficking already had their infrastructure. They had groups or subgroups to do the unloading, to assemble them on the drug boats, to store these boats, and then hide the drugs... It started in Campo de Gibraltar and then spread to the entire coast of Andalusia, which is now an unloading area all the way to Portugal. These groups allied themselves with people from South America, who saw an easy or possible way to introduce large quantities of cocaine. It coincides with the time when security was increased in European ports, where drugs entered in containers. The infrastructure for hashish was made available for cocaine.
Business increases because cocaine makes more money.
They are doing both: the hashish through Morocco and the cocaine that comes from Latin America, which arrives on mother cargo ships. In the Atlantic, the drug boats come to collect the drugs and then store them in the province of Cádiz, along the Guadalquivir River and in the area of Huelva. Now that entire area is booming for the unloading of cocaine and also the area of Portugal, bordering Huelva. And in Cádiz, boats have also been seized in Sanlúcar with large quantities of cocaine.
Given this proliferation of the drug business, it seems that prosecutors, police officers and civil guards lack the necessary tools to combat these international networks.
Clear. There are tools, but what there is is not enough to be able to effectively deal with these networks. Yes, they are taking caches because this has to be stopped. If it is not done, it will get worse and worse, as happened years ago in the Campo de Gibraltar. The drug trafficker has more and more money, more and more means, more and more weapons and more and more people dedicated to this. The fundamental thing that must be conveyed is that reinforcements are needed because this is very serious.
It is not just about intercepting a cache or shipment of weapons, but about deepening the investigation.
Taking stashes is also a way to stop, but it is not enough because we are not talking about an organization with 10 or 12 members. They are huge. They are like companies that, in turn, subcontract to other companies, and each one is made up of its members. In order to dismantle an organization, a lot of resources are needed, a lot of work, a lot of people who are on the ground, technological research measures, courts that are specialized and can carry out these investigations with guarantees that, afterwards, everything investigated will be able to be used in a trial because no rights have been violated, nor are they null. There is a need for specialized officials in the police forces, prosecutors and specialist judges... And the sentence must also be imposed within a reasonable time. Because, of course, there may be a group or many police groups, but then everything gets stuck in the courts... That doesn't help us either.
The courts of the province of Cádiz were jammed, precisely, with the investigations of OCON-Sur, the elite unit of the Civil Guard deployed to fight against drug trafficking that was active between 2018 and 2022.
Yes, and many matters from that stage are still in the investigative courts. There were many arrests and that was very effective.
Well now there are many voices, from the president of the Andalusian Government to the police and civil guard associations, who demand the return of OCON-Sur. Based on your experience, would it be positive for this group to be reactivated?
I think it will not be reactivated because it was a temporary group due to something exceptional that, well, now we are in a similar situation. It was made with templates from other commands and did a very good job: it restored the principle of authority and arrested many heads of the organizations. All of that worked very well. Now, we must reinforce the special investigation groups, Customs Surveillance... More people are needed, whatever their name is.
In the port of Barbate a drug boat ran over and killed two civil guards and last May in Huelva two other civil guards also died in a chase. Years ago, drug traffickers did not act with this violence against agents.
So, there weren't these drug boats now and when they were arrested they assumed it and that's it. But now it is like a fight against the security forces. They are younger people with a different mentality and it is certainly not easy to stop them. What happened in Barbate was outrageous because there was no persecution or anything there. Now they react with a lot of violence, also because the bosses demand it. They have to do whatever it takes to save the cargo and those who don't do it face retaliation.
And given this jump in drug violence, the associations of civil guards and police are asking for more resources and reinforcements that have not yet arrived.
I believe the demands are fair, because it is true that the situation is very complex.
Also worrying are the cases of police or civil guards who change sides and are bought by drug traffickers. Is it a minority phenomenon or not so much? What evolution have you experienced in these years?
These are complicated cases to detect, but there are investigations in which people from the security forces and bodies who are at the service of drug traffickers appear. The more money the organizations have, the easier it is to buy the will, not only of the police or civil guards, but also of people who are in the institutions or in the courts. In addition to attacking the entire drug trafficking operation, we must also increase investigations into money laundering. Where do they invest? What do they do with that money? Because they make a lot of money. All money laundering groups need to be strengthened to be able to address this.
Many money laundering investigations run into the Gibraltar pitfall.
Yes, it is complicated at times, but there is no need to go to Gibraltar because they are investing here, even in cryptocurrency businesses. There are many operations to try to launder money and hide the origin.
So, it's not just brick investments?
Also in the hospitality industry because they are businesses in which if you make an injection of cash it is very difficult to keep track of it. Property purchases are also made through intermediary companies.
Another novel issue is that drug traffickers who attack Civil Guard patrol boats are being accused of piracy on the high seas, as happened with this summer's attack on the coast of Huelva, in which ten were arrested.
Yes, because there has been a ruling in the National Court that was confirmed by the Supreme Court, in which he was convicted of piracy. There is an instruction from the Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office and also for the security forces and bodies to charge these crimes when there is any attack at sea on a vessel that is official, whether from the Civil Guard, Customs Surveillance or the Military Police.
And the pending reform of Justice...
The Attorney General recently said this: that the procedural system in Spain be reformed once and for all because this does not work. There are courts that are dedicated to everything and there are no specialties. In the Prosecutor's Office we have specialist prosecutors in practically all matters, but in the courts this is not always the case. And if a case arrives with more than 10 investigators, it gets stuck. There are courts in which judges change and there is no incentive for them to stay there. The reform is necessary and must be done now, so that the Prosecutor's Office takes over the investigation and the judges are there to guarantee guarantees and judge. Throughout Europe, the prosecutor is the one who leads the investigation.
But that profound change is never addressed.
Justice, in the end, seems to not interest anyone and no profound reforms are proposed to make it really work. This should be a State pact, although I know that the situation now is very complicated.
With this panorama, is the fight against drug trafficking a lost war?
The fundamental thing is to try to reduce drug consumption. If there are so many drugs it is because they are sold. There is a criminal solution, but first you have to try to carry out prevention work and eradication campaigns so that people know that drugs kill you, your family and all the people around you.
