The fight against drug cartels establishing themselves in Catalonia

BarcelonaHe landed in Catalonia from Serbia to work on construction sites. A much more lucrative source of income emerged: entering the drug business. And the money started rolling in. He and his compatriots lived in luxury apartments in the Poblenou area of Barcelona. They enjoyed a high standard of living that made them forget the risks they were taking. Until the summer of 2024, after two years of investigation, the National Police dismantled the network dedicated to the production and export of marijuana, with four large plantations spread across the country.

Serbians, Albanians, Danes, Swedes, Moroccans, Algerians, Dominicans, Colombians, Pakistanis... The drug business in Catalonia has become international in recent years. Many gangs have established themselves because Catalonia is the gateway to Europe. A strategic territory where, moreover, gangs find a favorable climate and less harsh legislation than in other countries, with lower sentences. "In Spain, the law is not a deterrent," says a lawyer specializing in bringing in drug traffickers, who admits that there should be a change in procedural law and increased sentences. A view shared by law enforcement. "Why Catalonia? There's the rumor, the urban legend, that justice is more lenient, that if it's not a large marijuana plantation, nothing happens the first time. The police aren't that harsh either, they don't hit you," adds another veteran lawyer accustomed to working with drug traffickers.

For trafficking cannabis or hashish, the sentences are between 1 and 3 years, and for hard drugs like heroin, ecstasy, and cocaine, 3 to 6 years. If the quantities are large, known as notorious importance, the penalties increase: if you are caught with more than 10 kg of marijuana, you can face four and a half years in prison, while carrying 750 grams of cocaine or 300 grams of heroin can mean up to nine years behind bars. On the other hand, if you are part of a criminal organization, the sentences increase to nine or 12 years, and if you are the leader of the plot, up to 18 years.

Mix of clans

Over the past twenty years, gangs of different nationalities settled in Catalonia, often specializing in a specific type of drug. They were isolated compartments, with no interaction between them. Pakistanis dominated the heroin circuits. Moroccans controlled a large part of the hashish routes from North Africa. And Dominicans and Colombians held the leading role in cocaine importation, which arrives primarily through the port of Barcelona. But in recent years, this has changed. They no longer operate independently: law enforcement agencies have detected collaboration between different groups of different nationalities and how each of these organizations handles a part of the process—production, importation, distribution, control, port extraction, security, etc. An example was Operation Magenta at the end of 2023, when a network dedicated to hashish—which had its own laboratory—was dismantled, with each group having a specific mission: people of Moroccan origin were in charge of importation; In fact, when the Mossos d'Esquadra detect gangs of certain nationalities, they try to act decisively to prevent them from taking root in Catalonia. Mexicans were implicated in Operation Magenta, as well as in the murder of a Kosovar-Albanian drug trafficker whom members of the Sinaloa cartel kidnapped and killed, in addition to attempting to extort money from his family. If these groups settle in Catalonia, they can be the gateway for new products or greater violence. The same thing happened before the pandemic with a Swedish organization—second-generation, with roots in the Maghreb—that was extremely violent. Operations against the gang prevented it from establishing itself in Catalonia. It also happened with the Marseille mafia, or it could happen again with the Turks, who used to control the heroin trade, but in recent years have also been linked to other drugs and pose a threat because they can be a source of entry for firearms.

This didn't happen with the Albanians, who gradually settled in Catalonia and now dominate a large part of the marijuana market. Although many of them have military training, "they are not violent; their weapons are used to defend themselves against drug robberies," says Commissioner Ramon Chacón, head of the general criminal investigation department of the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police). The gangs in this country send people to control marijuana plantations, the so-called "gangs." gardeners, and when they're dismantled, they send new people to replace them. Little investment. And abroad they sell it for double or triple what it's worth here," says a source familiar with the business. Furthermore, in recent years, Albanians have switched to cocaine.

Marijuana and Violence

The drug trade and the associated money laundering know no borders, and the figures bear this out. Over the last fifteen years, the number of people arrested by the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) or local police for drug trafficking-related offenses has practically doubled. From just over 2,400 in 2009 to almost 4,600 last year. The figures are a result of increased police efforts and "more drugs and consumption," the Mossos warn. The internationalization of the market and the establishment of criminal organizations in Catalonia have meant that the percentage of foreign nationals arrested has fluctuated between 55% and 70% of the total. The lowest levels occurred between 2015 and 2017, coinciding with the final years of the economic crisis and the period in which the foreign population was smaller Because there was an exodus of people who had come to Spain to seek a new life.

Almost half of these arrests are linked to marijuana, around 2,000 each year. About 900 are linked to hashish plots and a thousand to cocaine. Many of them are intercepted by the police for minor offenses against public health, but between 700 and a thousand each year are part of organized crime rooted in Catalonia.

But beyond the international gangs, as has always been the case, there are also local gangs. Criminal organizations that previously controlled the sector or people who simply see a way to make easy money. "Local families have entered the marijuana business to make ends meet. If they earn 15,000 euros in two or three months, that's all they earn. There are local people who come to the office to ask questions about this, about what happens if they get into the marijuana plantation business," admits one lawyer.

One of the phenomena associated with this proliferation of international gangs is the increase in violence and the resulting presence of firearms. This is primarily to protect themselves from thefts perpetrated by other gangs, the drug robberies. For now, according to police sources, the violence is associated with marijuana and, by mimicry, because it is copying the modus operandi, in hashish. Deaths associated with the cocaine trade are still rare, the same sources add. Data from the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) show that over one hundred weapons have been seized annually in the last five years, with special mention being made of the years 2020, 2022, and 2023, when there were practically two hundred and fifty firearms. In February, a young man died in Olesa de Montserrat in a drug robbery between two gangs, one local and one from the Maghreb. All of them were armed and were between 18 and 22 years old. "It was unthinkable ten years ago," Chacón admits.