Laurence Dollimore
RATHER than follow the government’s orders to remain indoors, drug traffickers, it seems, are taking advantage of the diverted police attention.
https://twitter.com/APAYFADUANAS/status/1240548290049069056
Footage has emerged online of six young people loading cans of fuel into a boat in La Duquesa port in Manilva.
The 20 cans are loaded onto a small boat before allegedly being taken out to supply narco-traffickers.
The brazen group were recorded at around 11am on Tuesday and acted right under the noses of people walking by, most likely tourists.
Donning hoodies, the youngsters make several trips to fill up their boat before setting off, but not before threatening the person making the recording.
“Don’t record me,” one shouts, “I s**t on your dead!” – a Spanish equivalent of ‘f**k you’.
One of them can be heard saying: “Don’t worry, nobody is coming.”
It comes as much of the country continues to be gripped by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with police and state security forces putting the majority of their efforts into enforcing the nationwide lockdown and ensuring supplies.
Despite this, El Mundo reports that Andalucia has seen several operations launched against drug traffickers, some resulting in seizures and arrests.
Guardia Civil told the Spanish national paper that they never stop their battle against drug traffickers, but admitted that the pressure they can apply right now is not the same and that some operations may be slowed down.
But the armed force was never under the illusion that drug trafficking would cease amid a coronavirus lockdown.
One agent said bluntly: “In Morocco there are drugs, in Europe clients and there is a lot of money.”
However smugglers and dealers will have to think on their feet, given that the streets of Spain have been turned into virtual ghost towns, with all non-essential travel banned and 30,000 checkpoints set up for this weekend.
In the last few days, at least, they have operated without interruption.
This has been blamed on the shortage of Guardia Civil agents in the Campo de Gibraltar area, a problem which has been going on for months and has only been exacerbated by the coronavirus crisis.
“Drug trafficking has not stopped,” said another Guardia Civil agent stationed in Cadiz, “Not even in times of the coronavirus.”
