«It is true that it could be Mexico, but it is Huelva... And we do not want to exaggerate, but the lack of protection for those of us who fight against drug trafficking here is enormous. We are quite abandoned and in the end this translates, sadly, into what has happened. The media will pay attention to us for a while, but the ones who are here doing double shifts, doing patrols alone and risking our necks are us. And Interior will reverse what it says, but the reality is that it is not enough.
The phrase was repeated this Monday to EL MUNDO by a civil guard from the anti-drug fight after the shooting last Sunday night, a settling of accounts between clans that took the lives of three people - an eight-month pregnant woman, a 62-year-old woman and a minor who had nothing to do with the conflict -, who were left lying on a street in Isla Cristina and whose images have gone around the world.
In a few hours, the Unified Association of Civil Guards (AUGC) cried out, complaining about the lack of resources of the agents in the area, and asking that the Ministry led by Fernando Grande-Marlaska recover the OCON-Sur coordination body, which, according to the union, kept drug trafficking "at bay" in the area during its years of existence, from 2018 to 2022.
The triple murder, carried out from a motorcycle in the midst of a clash between clans - although all sources also spoke of family feuds - came just four days after the Government's deputy delegate, María José Rico, assured in an interview with Europa Press that the central Government is making "a firm and determined commitment" so that "narcotics do not establish themselves" in Huelva. And from the Interior, this Monday, the data was repeated to EL MUNDO: 16% more Civil Guard staff against drug trafficking, 38 million in investment in 2026... Although the official source admitted a key connection point with the testimony of the beginning: «A lot is being invested. What may not be enough? Well perhaps, in view of what we are seeing. But the investment is there, and it is real.
From the AUGC, which brings together some 800 agents of the 1,500 that the Civil Guard has deployed in the province, a message is sent that is completely different from the ministerial figures. The union maintains that it is fighting drug trafficking "with World War II means." That some agents are forced to patrol alone, and not in the classic pairing, due to lack of troops. That, sometimes, there are only two agents to protect the Government Subdelegation itself and one for the command. That the lack of boats is "total." And that the pressure on drug trafficking in Cádiz has displaced many criminal groups to Huelva, "with less than half the number of troops."
"The problem," explains Lucas Lavilla, spokesperson for the union in the province, "is that we cannot denounce things by giving excessive data, because then our colleagues complain that we help the bad guys, when the reality is that the little that has been achieved is because we denounced it, and I say it, with my name, showing my face."
His speech is devastating: «Subdelegation says that we are the best, that Huelva is an oil pond. He talks about an investment of 38 million euros, which is actually for all of Andalusia. With all this investment that they say they have made, there are no more boats or equipment, although we cannot give specific data so as not to give clues to the bad guys, who already have many. In the end, what you have here are your usual colleagues, risking their lives and neglecting their families, because yes, here you don't pay even an extra hour. They pump out figures at the expense of the people who work here not seeing their families. Everything that is told is a serial. Now we have suffered a shooting, months ago the death of two colleagues. They are systematically false data that they give for their parish. They even call us bosses to tell us that what is happening is a shame.
Lavilla, who represents more than half of the province's agents, also complains that the reinforcement of troops occurs "only in the summer months" and with trainee agents, "who are not oriented or given training." AUGC, he explains, does not question the data put forward by the Government Subdelegation, which assures that Huelva has up to three points less crime than the Spanish average and is the second least dangerous in Andalusia after Córdoba: 25,000 kilos of hashish and 5,000 of cocaine seized, and 87 arrests so far this year. "What we are saying is that this is achieved without means, without increasing staff, and something that does not exist is sold," repeats the union representative.
"The reality," they answer from the Interior, "is that such a large investment has never been made against drug trafficking as the one that has been made since 2018 with the Gibraltar Plan: it is 240 million in eight years. That maybe it's not enough? Well, it is possible, but so much has never been invested, this is how it is.
The OCON-Sur issue is the other workhorse. When Marlaska arrived at the Interior, the coordination body was set up as a "temporary shock measure", sources of absolute solvency of the Benemérita certify to EL MUNDO. The group, very expensive as it consisted of about 200 agents on secondment, was operationally effective, but it was planned that these agents would be subsumed by the different commands, as happened in 2022, and an investigation into its head, David Oliva, has ended with him and several of his subordinates prosecuted for alleged collusion with one of the clans.
Since then, every event in the area is linked to the dismantling of OCON-Sur, and the truth is that no one denies that the pressure that the group imposed in the fight against drug trafficking was effective and real. "What happens," says Lucas Lavilla, from AUGC, "is that without OCON a lot of flexibility has been lost: there were 200 agents ready at any time, and they moved from one province to another quickly. Now, those same agents, in each of the groups, do an excellent job as Judicial Police, but that flexibility of rapid response has been lost, and from those dusts these sludge.
