Laurence Dollimore
THE Campo de Gibraltar is becoming the ‘Colombia of Spain’, Spanish police have warned.
According to Spain’s United Police Union (SUP), young people in areas like La Linea are idolising Pablo Escobar and becoming increasingly involved in the drug trade.
The SUP added that the area was in danger of becoming like Galicia in the 1980s, when it was overrun by gangsters and drug lords and was used as an entry point to Europe for Colombian cocaine.
It comes after 20 masked men successfully stormed a hospital in La Linea to rescue their drug boss from police custody last week.
And just a few days ago, a police car was purposefully smashed into by a ‘hitman’ who was hired to intercept a high-speed drug chase in what was described as ‘like a scene from Narcos’ – the hit Netflix series chronicling the career of Pablo Escobar.
A spokesman for the union said: “We need specialised personnel in citizen security capable of dealing effectively with these dangerous situations.
“There’s clearly a lack of security in La Linea and it’s down to the fact that we don’t have sufficient personnel to tackle drug traffickers.
“The increasingly high profile drug trafficking that we have in this area lies at the root of the problem.
“We are seeing an average of 10 launches come in daily loaded with 1,000 or 2,000 kilos of drugs.
“All we are asking is for the government to make available the necessary resources to face up to this scourge which is invading us more and more.”
“This is a city in the hands of delinquents and we can’t allow that.
“It’s becoming like a small Colombian Andalucia.”
