Two Spanish Police Officers Killed in High Speed Drug Boat Chase
Two Spanish police officers were killed during a high-speed boat chase off the coast of Andalusia, on the Atlantic side of the Strait of Gibraltar, the Guardia Civil confirmed Friday.
The officers' union for the Guardia Civil said said that at about 0800 hours on Friday, a drug boat chase about 70 nm off Huelva, a 60-meter high speed interceptor and a RIB boat collided. An officer identified as German Perez, 55, was killed at the scene, and a second officer later died of injuries sustained in the crash. Two others sustained serious injuries that left them incapacitated and in need of medical treatment.
The union for Guardia Civil officers said that the casualty was foreseeable, a consequence of policies that had been discussed before.
"This is not an unforeseen accident. It is the direct consequence of a documented risk situation, analyzed and formally reported to the Administration, which chose not to act," AUGC alleged in a statement.
The union said that it had previously asked for a risk assessment for maritime interdictions targeting drug smugglers; a minimum crew size of four people for boarding missions; a restriction on the use of RIBs to limit their deployment for surveillance only; and a review of the procedure for activating 60-meter fast pursuit boats.
Andalusia is a hotbed for cocaine smuggling in southwestern Spain, and now handles a substantial volume of imports for Western Europe. The area's estuaries (notably around Huelva) receive "final mile" deliveries of cocaine shipped via the South America-Canary Islands route. After taking on cargo in a ship-to-ship transfer at sea, high speed boats deliver the drugs to the riverine waterways along the Gulf of Cadiz.
"Drug trafficking didn't choose Huelva by chance. Increasing police pressure in the Campo de Gibraltar pushed criminal organizations westward, solidifying the Huelva coast as one of the main entry points for drugs into Europe. The Huelva Command operates with nearly 300 fewer officers than it should have, a deficit of close to 20% of its theoretical staff," AUGC claimed in a statement.
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The agency pointed to a podcast interview that a narco-trafficking skipper did with Spanish influencer Mowlihawk last month. "The Civil Guard officers are helpless, they can't handle it," the longtime smuggler said on camera, noting that he expected the final penalties for getting caught to be in the range of one to three years in prison.
The amounts involved in the region's trafficking networks can be huge: this week, Spanish authorities set a new world record with a 30-tonne cocaine bust aboard a small freighter off the Canary Islands. Authorities believe that this vessel - like many others before it - was planning to transfer its drug cargo to Andalusia's speedboat operators for the long northbound transit to mainland Spain.
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