Walter Finch
THE Guardia Civil have admitted they may have pointed the finger at the wrong narco in the murder of two officers in Barbate in February.
They are now seeking a man identified as Karim, who is thought to have been piloting the drug boat which rammed the patrol vessel in Barbate harbour in Cadiz on February 9.
Spanish authorities are expected to ask their Moroccan counterparts for help tracking Karim down.
Police believe that the fugitive, who is suspected to be hiding in Morocco, has family ties along the Costa del Sol.
His uncle, Abdellah El Merabet, also known as ‘Pus Pus’, is a Moroccan national residing in Malaga with a suspected history in narcotrafficking.
He is believed to be the kingpin of the narco-trafficking organisation which Karim was working for at the time of the incident.
Pus Pus reportedly owns a string of properties on the Costa del Sol, including luxury vehicles, jet skis, and a flashy yacht.
The alleged drug lord even owns a two-floor yacht anchored in Puerto Banus valued at half a million euros.
Investigators believe Pus Pus may be providing safe haven to Karim in Morocco, using his wealth and connections to shield him from capture.
Spanish authorities are seeking the North African country’s cooperation to locate and extradite Karim.
While extradition procedures exist, they can be lengthy and complex.
Even if tracked down and arrested in Morocco, Karim might face serving his sentence there, where penalties for such crimes can be harsher than in Spain.
Authorities had initially accused a separate narco, Francisco Javier MP, also known as ‘Kiko el Cabra’, of causing the deadly collision.
But they no longer believe it was Kiko who was piloting the narco launch that had rammed the Guardia Civil boat and killed the officers David Perez and Miguel Angel Gonzalez.
Kiko and five others arrested for their deaths are still in prison for the offence.
The developments will vindicate the wives of the six men, who loudly complained to the media that their husbands were innocent.
Painstaking analysis of video shaky footage and phone records that captured the night and the infamous moment of impact raised doubts over whether it was Kiko and his band who rammed the police boat.
Investigators realised that the drug boat which smashed the official patrol boat had four engines and one antenna, while the one that was impounded the day after the events was also four-engined, but with two antennas.
