Drug traffickers step up campaign of ‘threats and harassment’

Spanish law enforcement agencies said officers operating in this region are facing increased “threats, coercion and harassment” at the hands of organised crime gangs.
The Plataforma Profesional de Fuerzas y Cuerpos de Seguridad y Vigilancia Aduanera – a nationwide group that represents municipal and national police officers as well as Guardia Civil officers – is protesting the “unsustainable situation created by the illegal activities of drug cartels in the Strait of Gibraltar area”.
“We want to express our regret and concern about the growing dominance of drug traffickers in the area of the Campo de Gibraltar,” the group said in a statement, as it flagged the violence and threats suffered on a daily basis by officers.
In a worrying development, the harassment tactics have now been extended to the families of officers.
According to the group officers in the region work in a “tense climate of persecution and social exclusion” intended to intimidate them in their daily activities both personal and professional.
The group is also calling for 300 additional officers and equipment as well as community involvement and for the Spanish central authorities to take note of the situation.
It claims that with an ageing complement of officers, younger officers are required to deal with what is an increasingly demanding job both physically and psychologically.
The group said the existing resources available to law enforcement agencies were “insufficient and obsolete”, placing agents at a “shameful disadvantage”.
“Spain’s southern frontier is a sieve for RHIBS and fast launches bringing drugs from Morocco,” the group stated.
It said Europe’s southern border it required greater surveillance and protection.
Photo by David Parody