The bullets from the drug traffickers have unleashed political anger in Marbella. The six shootings recorded in less than two months in the city of Malaga have deepened the open wound between the City Council, led by Mayor Ángeles Muñoz (PP), and the Government of Pedro Sánchez. The councilwoman, who is usually restrained in her comments about organized crime, said on Monday that after the latest shootings the town “has to be a priority” for the National Police. The Government's deputy delegate, Javier Salas, responded this Wednesday in a very harsh tone: he stated that Muñoz's demonstrations are “unpresentable and unworthy” because the town is already a priority for the security forces; and he recalled the recent implementation of the Marbella Plan, focused on the fight against criminal organizations whose members, according to police sources, are increasingly armed. Both parties will meet at the Local Safety Board on April 25.
Last Saturday, a 34-year-old man of Albanian nationality was seriously injured when he was shot several times in a restaurant in the Guadalmina urbanization, one of the luxury areas of Marbella. The perpetrators of the attempted murder fled in a vehicle and the victim was admitted, in serious condition, to the Costa del Sol Hospital, and later transferred to Malaga. It was the sixth shooting in the Malaga municipality in two months - to which two others were added in neighboring Mijas -, resulting in four young men being injured. A situation that police sources attribute to the large number of criminal groups settled in Marbella territory, their disputes over territory or merchandise and “the ease” with which the drug traffickers involved, who are usually between 20 and 30 years old, use their weapons. to solve any problem. “The latest events have different profiles and groups,” explains an agent, who highlights that “they are unconnected events.”
On Monday Ángeles Muñoz demanded “measures” in the face of a situation that means that the city, with 150,000 inhabitants, experiences practically one incident with firearms every week. “These types of actions transcend the information that the City Council has and must be tackled with the effectiveness that, we are convinced, the police itself has and that we can resolve them as soon as possible,” he said, later insisting that “Marbella has to be a priority” for the National Police. She also requested that her agents share information with the Local Police, “to improve cooperation” and prevent the image of the town as a tourist and residential destination from being damaged. Ángel González, popular senator for Málaga, also warned of the “worrying increase in crime” in the province, and mentioned robberies, the arrival of drug boats to Manilva and the shootings in Marbella.
The Government's response took two days later. The subdelegate, Javier Salas, has stated that Muñoz “has disrespected the women and men of the National Police who risk their lives every day to protect the residents of Marbella”, with statements that he considers “unpresentable and unworthy of an institutional representative.” “Marbella is already a priority [for the security forces],” he stressed. In her opinion, the mayor “the only thing she is involved in is messing with and confronting the Government of Spain.” She has also recalled the alleged involvement of Muñoz's relatives in a money laundering and drug trafficking plot for which the Prosecutor's Office is requesting 22 years in prison for her stepson.
More police on the street
The Ministry of the Interior launched the so-called Marbella Plan last week in response to the spike in shootings in the town. He did not provide official data (“so as not to give more information to criminals,” according to police sources), but the National Police indicates that between 30 and 40 new agents have arrived. They come from the Granada and Almería staff and are part of the Prevention and Reaction Unit (UPR) and the Police Intervention Unit (UIP), known as riot police. These reinforcements will allow vehicle and person controls to be carried out in random places and times, such as in the scattered urbanizations that populate the surroundings of the Marbella urban area. “For practical purposes, the Marbella Plan will mean a greater uniformed police presence on public roads,” they explained from the Malaga Provincial Police Station.
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The territory already has agents specialized in long and complex investigations, such as those assigned to the Drug and Organized Crime Unit (Udyco) and also the Response Group against Organized Crime (Greco), which is on its way to completing two decades of operation. . Sources from these teams, who avoid entering into political controversies, assure that the ongoing investigations related to the six shootings in the last two months are advancing and that “all those involved will fall” sooner or later. In fact, two of the incidents have already led to arrests: three Swedish citizens have been accused of shooting a compatriot in the Nueva Andalucía district on February 10, in a confrontation between clans originating from Sweden; and two other people have been arrested for their involvement in a shooting attack on a restaurant.
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