La Jonquera, the market for cheap drugs for the French

La JunqueraFrom the terrace of Snack Bar 2001, a long stretch of Carrer Major in La Jonquera, in the Alt Empordà region, can be observed. A few meters away, three or four men of North African origin wait patiently, leaning against the wall. They come and go, chat amongst themselves, sit down to smoke, and exchange a few words with the ONCE lottery vendor. On the nearest corner, the scene repeats itself. Until a Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) car parks in front and the group disperses. These individuals, who spend their days positioned at various strategic points along Carrer Major, are the ones who distribute drugs to French customers who cross the border to obtain cheaper cocaine or hashish.

Last week, plainclothes local police officers dismantled a drug warehouse while pursuing a suspect. The man managed to escape but left the door of the premises open. They found 605 grams of cocaine, half a kilogram of heroin, and 800 grams of hashish. On Thursday, a U.S. citizen was caught with more than a kilogram of hashish and another kilogram of marijuana, worth 6,000 euros. "You don't find these quantities every day," admits Sub-Inspector Alonso Caballero. He leads the eighteen members of the La Jonquera local police force. They are a unique case: almost twenty officers for a town of 3,400 inhabitants where more than 20,000 vehicles pass through every day and which in August can receive up to a million visitors. This town changed radically in the 1990s when Spain joined the Schengen Area. Before, more than 1,500 people worked in the customs sector and had very competitive salaries. With the disappearance of customs, many of them ended up unemployed, and La Jonquera became a town that provided services to tourists and truckers. Also appearing were the large brothels that dominate the outskirts of the municipality.

The Tridents

Penalties for drug trafficking and consumption are less severe in Spain than in France. Drug prices are also radically different. For example, marijuana costs twice as much in France. "Here it costs 2,000 euros per kilo, in France, 4,000," explains a Civil Guard officer. Therefore, most of the customers are French people who cross into La Jonquera to buy drugs in small quantities, enough for one or two weeks, and then return to their country. Sometimes they are already high, since many of them consume drugs directly in Catalonia to reduce the amount they carry. This creates insecurity in the town because some drug dens have appeared. The police have increased operations and have shut down about twenty such operations in five and a half years. "They disrupt the peace with their presence, and we disrupt them with police pressure," Caballero summarizes.

One of the most effective forms of enforcement is the so-called Tridents, joint operations involving nearly thirty officers from all the police forces: Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan Police), Guardia Civil (Spanish Civil Guard), National Police, and Local Police. They conduct at least two such operations per month. Between 2024 and the first ten months of 2025, they arrested 43 people, impounded 254 vehicles, and issued 500 citations for public health offenses—weapons, fights, and drugs. They also carried out 135 drug tests to discourage customers from using drugs in La Jonquera. "They buy and leave; they no longer stay to party because the fines can be 600 euros or they can lose their car," explains Caballero, who laments the limited resources they have to target the facilitators, those who recruit customers on the street and take them to the drug dens. Police checkpoints are also set up outside the town. At the highway exit, three Civil Guard cars and one French Gendarmerie car stop suspicious vehicles. Every day they carry out at least a couple of checks. The canine unit inspects a truck and a car with French license plates. The dog detects nothing and is able to continue on its way. However, every month the Civil Guard arrests four or five people connected to drugs at these checkpoints. The Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) do as well. The latest arrest was of a 33-year-old man carrying six kilos of marijuana toward France. He was a passenger in a taxi, and his nervousness gave him away. An officer explains that the checkpoints are not random: they know what types of vehicles to stop and which license plates are suspicious. Rental cars, for example, give them clues.

Lack of resources

Despite the Tridents (drug-resistant vehicles) and the eighteen local police officers, everyone agrees that there are insufficient resources to combat drug trafficking and its related problems in a border town as mobile as La Jonquera. The Civil Guard's canine unit dog, for example, has to cover the entire Girona region. Furthermore, the elimination of tolls on the AP-7 motorway makes it difficult for the police to carry out checks; they can only do so on vehicles traveling off the motorway. And many drug traffickers also use a lead car. –which goes ahead of the vehicle carrying the drugs– to avoid police checkpoints.

The mayor of La Jonquera, Míriam Lanero, is also demanding more "police resources." The Junts politician is also focusing on repeat offenders, one of the problems stemming from drug trafficking. "There's the worst of the worst," a Civil Guard officer quips. These are not isolated cases. Due to the constant flow of drugs that occurs daily, all police sources agree that one or more criminal organizations are operating in the area. "It's not a passing fad. To transport drugs, store them, and resell them, you need an organization," they state. Drugs have led to fights, some drug addicts living on the streets, and a greater sense of insecurity. "I wouldn't let my daughter go out to play in the street after eight in the evening," a neighbor asserts. "People don't go out at night, the town has changed; it's gotten worse in the last ten or fifteen years," explains Inés, who works in one of the shops in the town center. However, she is convinced there is no risk to the residents because everyone knows each other. This is what Caballero tries to argue: there are petty thefts, like anywhere else, but, on the other hand, there are hardly any robberies with violence or break-ins.

"It seems like La Jonquera is the Wild West, because there's prostitution and drugs, but it happens just like in other places. Our whole problem is related to public health," argues the local police chief. "If you take away the drugs from La Jonquera, it's like Port Aventura," summarizes a high-ranking police official.