Drug mafias reign on the Costa del Sol
The Costa del Sol, with its epicenter located in the city of Marbella, is the southern gateway for drug entry into Europe and a true hub where mafias from all over the world converge, to the point that police forces acknowledge their inferiority compared to organizations that move hundreds of millions and have practically no limits. L'ARA wanted to get a close look at the impact of the drug business on the Andalusian coast with two major reports, one focused on Marbella and another, to be published tomorrow, on Barbate. Marbella has been synonymous with luxury and glamour, but also corruption, for many decades. Barbate, on the other hand, represents the other side of the coin, that of old fishing villages where poverty has driven many young people towards drug trafficking, who are nothing more than pawns of international cartels.
On the Costa del Sol, there are geographical conditions that make it "the UN of cartels," in the words of a police officer. Close to the port where the most cocaine is seized annually, Algeciras; an hour's boat ride from a major hashish producer like Morocco, and next to a tax haven like Gibraltar. It is not surprising, therefore, that the world's main mafias (Italian, Mexican, Russian, Turkish, Dutch) want to have a foothold there.
Approaching the phenomenon of drug trafficking and mafias places us before the limits of states to enforce the law in their territories. The police officers who face it daily, consulted by L'ARA, confirm that even tripling their resources would not be enough to curb this business, so the most they can aspire to is a kind of containment. However, mafias also end up infiltrating the state's structures by buying police officers, lawyers, politicians, and even judges. This is truly the great danger, that of becoming a narco-state, as is happening or has happened in some parts of Latin America.
In any case, it is important to focus on it for two reasons. The first is because it is a reality in Andalusia that is often hidden or confused with social and gossip column news. And second, because a large part of the drug that moves in the Costa del Sol ends up passing through Catalonia, which is another European hub where various mafias are established. The National Police explains that it is in close contact with the Mossos d'Esquadra to coordinate actions and prevent the drug from crossing the border to be distributed throughout Europe.
In the case of Barbate, in addition to a security problem, we are witnessing an evident social failure. The lack of opportunities in turn generates high school dropout rates that push its inhabitants, even today, to emigration or to participate in the drug trafficking business, which in their eyes appears as the fastest path to social success. The dream of these young people is to leave the Cadiz coast to make the leap to Marbella, which has become a showcase for maximum luxury, be it Ferraris, Rolexes, mansions or yachts moored in Puerto Banús. And the State's job is to offer them an alternative.
