Organized crime in Spain goes far beyond guns

Last Saturday, police officers from Seville’s Group Against Organized Crime (Greco) bullet in the groin During a shootout with a drug trafficker who used a military weapon and managed to escape, a projectile penetrated his bulletproof vest. And on Sunday, Gio and others killed a trafficker during an operation in El Casal de Escalona (Toledo), and two others were injured by gunfire when a gunfight broke out.

The accumulation of these three news stories over the past few days has made organized crime a hot topic, and the incidents are not only constant, but increasing. Officially, it can be said that the government is dealing with this criminal technique at the highest level. In July the government approved a new strategy against organized and serious crime. Department of Homeland Security (DSN) Signed by Pedro Sánchez, Moncloa -;But everyone who works in this field agrees that this issue is not on the executive branch’s “real” agenda, and that the executive branch is far more interested in ensuring its survival than these issues.

“There is a lack of professional police and judicial personnel. Technical measures. Adaptation of the law. Effective protection of researchers. Taking this issue out of political debate and raising awareness in society that we are facing a national priority,” the police commander insists. Create a highest level table containing all actors involvedIt also includes the national army, financial institutions that fight economic crime, and local and regional police forces that deal with the main threats facing Spain. And one of the priorities is the Mafia,” national security officials suggested, adding, “But it has to be functional.”

The aforementioned DSN strategy against organized crime describes this phenomenon as being “characterized by an interconnected criminal environment with increasing violence, corruption and the use of legal structures” and their use becoming more frequent.New technology to expand your impactoptimize activities and act with a greater sense of impunity.

Additionally, the document highlights the following points:The transnational nature of criminal activitythe influence of the global geostrategic situation, especially those originating from war conflicts, the convergence between terrorist groups and organized crime networks, or the performance of criminal networks as intermediaries of hybrid threats, among others, determine the context of this threat.

Spain will need to add to the use of mafia groups by hostile intelligence services, as was clearly seen in the attempted assassination in Madrid of former Catalan Popular Party President Alejo Vidal Cuadra, commissioned by the Iranian regime, and of a Russian pilot killed in Alicante who decided to defect and join the Ukrainian side in an operation carried out by criminals paid for by Moscow. or that’s Sergey ProtsenyaA Russian billionaire committed suicide after killing his wife and daughter with an axe. Although the incident was portrayed as a case of sexist violence, everything points to a crime commissioned by the GRU.

11th threat

Despite this diagnosis, the latest national security report, also produced by DSN, ranks organized crime 11th out of 17 major threats to Spain. Indeed, the first and third place respectively. Cyberspace vulnerabilities and irregular migration flowsMafia networks are also a protagonist in this document, but even that document does not analyze all the meanings of organized crime and, as its author recognizes, its increasingly close relationship with terrorism.

“If you want to know where we are going, alert your law enforcement officials. We have to look at what is happening in the Netherlands. moro mafia It is more powerful than the nation itself. Or in Belgium, the government is considering putting the military on the streets and imposing curfews in certain areas. Organized crime is rampant in Sweden, with prisons being shot at in areas of southern France controlled by the mafia. In Spain, the situation in Campo de Gibraltar initially affected the provinces of Cadiz and Malaga. Now it has reached Huelva, Seville… but there are serious problems in other regions Catalonia, Levante, Madrid or Galicia. “The cancer has metastasized.”

As such, the police approach changed over time to include more police than private security. of General information committeePreviously focused on ETA and Islamist terrorism, it has already begun to intervene alone or with colleagues from the judicial police in operations against organized crime organizations as powerful as the Aragua train to gangs in El Salvador. It is clear that they are a threat to national security. The Institute for Armed Forces had already set up specific units at its intelligence headquarters to deal with new threats such as the Russian and Chinese mafia.

The Center for National Intelligence (CNI), which carried out invaluable operations against the Russian mafia in the late 90s and the first decade of the 2000s, was at the forefront of intelligence agencies around the world, but in view of the intensity of the jihadist threat, it fell back with the Rajoy government, which decided to leave the matter in the exclusive hands of the security forces, despite the reluctance of intelligence officials. Currently we are paying for it, but sources consulted by the ABC say the Center has amended its decision and Resuming operations against organized crime More serious: “It was a mistake, and even more so given what we saw in Russia.

According to the latest figures provided by DSN, from 2023 onwards, 472 organized crime groups arrested in SpainThe numbers were similar to the previous year. However, the document does not specify how many items are considered high-intensity, with significant national security implications. Between 2018 and 2022, there were approximately 6 cases, most of which were of moderate relevance, with an average of 250 cases per year. This consideration does not mean that they have become increasingly dangerous or violent.

Most organizations specialize in drug trafficking, including cocaine trafficking, which reached an all-time high in 2023 and remained stable last year at around 118,000 kilograms. Regarding hashish, interventions will increase in 2023; 375,000kmHowever, preliminary data suggests that number will decline somewhat in 2024.

Regarding its composition, it is characterized by the fact that the majority is made up of people of various nationalities, including Spaniards, Development of international activities There is also a clear tendency to utilize commercial structures for that purpose, as well as to become a service provider for other networks and to penetrate logistics infrastructure, especially ports, to facilitate its actions.

The Department of Homeland Security also points out that: Confiscation of weapons of all kindsamong many wars, liquidation, attacks on police and customs officials, and drug theft between mafias are “common”.

He also sees a certain danger that “third countries and non-state actors could instrumentalize migration flows (…) and become a tool to destabilize the system.” Additionally, there are risks such as: “Vulnerability of irregular immigrants” They could be exploited in radicalization processes or “could be used to infiltrate terrorist elements.”

relationship with terrorists

The agency claims that “terrorist groups and organized crime networks are increasingly merging and cooperating in all areas of crime,” including drug trafficking, human trafficking, human trafficking, weapons and explosives trafficking, or money laundering to finance terrorism.

It also highlights that organized crime “increasingly acts as an intermediary in the service of hybrid threat actors, which is a challenge not only to public safety but also to the very fabric of institutions and societies.”

In this sense, “corruption (…) has a very negative impact on national security by creating an environment conducive to organized crime,” states the DSN. It added: “Criminal networks are aware of the role that corruption plays in successfully carrying out their operations and seek to carry out the necessary operations, including various forms of intimidation, to corrupt individuals at all levels.”

Even with all these reports on the table, the government continues to keep organized crime (for some, 21st century terrorism) and national security policy in general off the public agenda. Meanwhile, the mafia and all the criminal activities around it will be intensified and national security will be compromised.