Walter Finch
COLLEAGUES of a decorated Guardia Civil counter narcotics officer facing charges of bribery have claimed he is being set up by vengeful drug trafficking gangs.
Lieutenant colonel David Oliva is accused of offering a fellow officer a place in his crack unit in exchange for spying on an internal investigation into his own conduct.
Oliva was questioned by a court last week over the allegations, made by Spain’s Internal Affairs Service.
They revolve around suggestions that he attended a party thrown by the drug gangs he was charged with fighting, for which he was allegedly being investigated.
But allies are arguing that the highly-regarded officer is being framed by traffickers furious that he went after their cars, houses and other luxuries they bought with their ill-gotten gains.
One staunch ally even argued that if the lieutenant-colonel had attended the criminal gathering, it was only in an effort to infiltrate the gangs and gain intelligence.
For four years until 2022, Oliva was the leader of the crack division (OCON) charged with combating the torrent of drugs entering Spain through the Campo de Gibraltar hotspot.
The 130-person strong team of specialists smashed all records for arrests and seizures, leading to Oliva being awarded the National Plan on Drugs Medal of Merit in 2021.
Oliva pioneered a new method of fighting the perennial scourge of the region by targeting the traffickers’ assets rather than their drug stashes.
He also focused on following the money laundering trail and the tentacles of corruption around Andalucia.
This strategy was so successful that it enraged the gangs and reportedly set them to plotting how to get rid of Oliva and his unit.
So when the OCON was inexplicably disbanded in 2022, the drug traffickers along Spain’s southern coast celebrated its demise.
“I hope this son of a bitch dies a slow death, suffering each minute,” one narco-trafficker wrote of Oliva in a Whatsapp group seen by El Mundo.
Oliva is currently serving in the Malaga headquarters of the Guardia Civil.
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- A top chief in the Malaga Guardia Civil under investigation for partying with drug traffickers near Gibraltar
