How Marbella has become a luxury backdrop for drug traffickers

MarbellaDriving through it, from the access roads to the main avenues, Marbella has the quality of being a city that could be many other cities. Better said, any other overcrowded city on the Costa Dorada, Costa Brava, French Riviera, or the Costa del Sol itself, of which it is an emblem. The tallest buildings are hotels and not offices, the apartment blocks, also imposing, have communal swimming pools, and the mountains on the horizon are full of white dots; buildings that have destroyed the natural landscape. But if you venture onto the roads that wind through the mountains, you see they are not chalets or old houses: there are many mansions, complexes, tennis clubs, and exclusive golf courses. The health crossing signs are accompanied by signs that say Arzt and Apotheke, not doctor or pharmacy. The billboards are in English and advertise private clinics, mostly for aesthetic tweaks, to treat low fertility or hair loss, aimed at an older demographic who do not want to - or at least want to hide - getting older.

Only the continuous Spanish flags on each roundabout, surprisingly large, remind you that this is Spain. But nothing else gives any clue, nor do you hear it spoken. There are developments of specific nationalities, ghettos for the rich. It is not uncommon to see expensive cars with exotic license plates. The main avenue is called Julio Iglesias, a declaration of intent of the city's character. The end of the street of the most international Spanish singer gives way to a port reserved for yachts, which float motionless on a rainy January day. We are in Puerto Banús, a port with no warehouses, no fishermen's cottages, no fish market. It doesn't even smell of the sea. On the same quay, three steps from the yachts, there is a row of luxury shops, some even repeated. Michael Kors, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Dolce Gabbana, Versace, Dior, Emporio Armani, Zadig Voltaire. Dock, disembark from the yacht, shop, and return to the boat. All within a hundred steps.

The luxury of a town given over to outsiders makes it an ideal hiding place for the powerful drug traffickers who have been established in Marbella for decades. They are cartels from all over the world, who speak their own language and no one is surprised, who drive high-end cars and no one finds it strange, who buy a mansion and no one raises an eyebrow, nor suspects, nor wonders what they do to earn a living. "The narcos have a way of life that does not go unnoticed. The luxury is scandalous. But in Marbella, everything is anonymous, you go unnoticed. Who knows if that person is a successful businessman, a narco, or an arms dealer," explains lawyer Lázaro Chico.

Sun, sea, and comforts

Marbella is in a strategic area if drug trafficking is your business: a few kilometers from the port of Algeciras, through which cocaine enters; also a few kilometers from Morocco, from where hashish comes; and close to marijuana-producing territories like Granada. But it is also a privileged space, of sun, sea, and comforts, which attracts the Irish mafia that only sees rain or the Swedish one that lives in permanently freezing places. Marbella has been the summer destination of luxury and, for years, everyone has wanted to have a place. Moammar al-Gaddafi, ex-dictator of Libya, had a large estate there, known for years as El Rancho Gaddafi. Hosni Mubarak, former president of Egypt, followed him, who had properties on the seafront.

One of the most luxurious mansions was that of arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi. He was a key figure for the Saudi Arabian royalty to land in Marbella. Prince Fahd, who ruled the country between 1982 and 2005, decided to spend his summers there and built several luxury properties. Marbella welcomed the friendship of Prince Fahd with the then King of Spain, Juan Carlos I. In 1979, in fact, he gave him a yacht, the famous Fortuna. The history of Marbella would not be understood without the parties of Gunilla von Bismarck, a member of the high German aristocracy, without the long tenure of Jesús Gil as mayor, and without the subsequent Operation Malaya. In 2006, a large urban corruption scheme was uncovered in the town hall, with bribes, irregular licenses, and infinite developable land.

Pools and more pools

"This real estate boom changed everything. Before, there wasn't even a sewer system," explains Lucia Casaus, founder of the architectural firm GC Studio. They are in charge of building the most luxurious and complex mansions for the rich, worth millions of euros, with a 25-meter heated outdoor pool, an indoor spa, a gym, a nursery, a basketball court, a golf simulator, a hyperbaric chamber, and more pools, lots of pools. How many of their clients are Spanish? "5%," she replies. They are young clients, 30 or 40 years old. Lithuanian, Belgian, Dutch, Mexican. She lives in Marbella and practically has no Spanish neighbors either. She has only encountered one. She has designed houses worth 27 million euros – Villa Olympus, 2,000 square meters built, with a cinema and spa – and apartments that cost five. After COVID, she has noticed that seasonal clients have become permanent and that she increasingly has more buyers who work in the tech industry. All in a beautiful city if you like concrete and imposing houses, which "has no depressed areas," adds Lázaro Chico.

There are still some romantics left, however. Paco walks through the center of Puerto Banús while pointing out buildings: "Look, I built this one, this car park too," he says. He has been a bricklayer all his life and says he now feels like a foreigner in the city where he grew up. "There are still people from the old days, but most are from elsewhere," he admits. He says goodbye right in front of a real estate agency, which is advertising a new mansion for only 10 million euros.