John Culatto
TWO Guardia Civil officers were seriously injured while chasing a van loaded with hashish that was trying to escape from Getares beach in Algeciras.
Police finally managed to catch the drug traffickers, arresting five people and seizing over 1,400 kilos of cannabis resin.
During the chase, the drug smugglers rammed the Guardia Civil vehicle, injuring the two people inside.
But police officers finally stopped the vehicle and found 56 bales of hash inside.
Despite the eventual success, the Guardia Civil Association of Spain (AEGC) criticised the central government closure of the militarised police unit that used to be based in Algeciras.
Minister of the Interior Fernando Grande-Marlaska put an end to the four year operation of the Southern Drug Trafficking Coordinating Body (OCON) in mid-September.
“We Civil Guards return to the situation prior to 2018: we are once again alone against drug traffickers,” the AEGC said in a statement.
“The dissolution of the OCON unit will result in some emboldened drug traffickers , who are already rubbing their hands because they see themselves as free to do whatever they want in the region,” it added.
The OCON unit carried out thousands of arrests while seizing tons of hashish arriving from Morocco through the Straits of Gibraltar.
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