Walter Finch
THE drug trafficker accused of piloting the narco boat that killed two Guardia Civil officers in February has finally been arrested.
After months of evading capture, Karim El Baqqali, 32, was picked up by authorities while in Cadiz in the early hours of Thursday morning after spending months hiding out in Morocco.
The Moroccan national is accused of piloting the narcolancha that killed Miguel Ángel González and David Pérez in Barbate.
The incident occurred when the officers, patrolling with four colleagues in a Zodiac inflatable speed boat, were rammed by the high-powered narco boat.
The smugglers, who normally loiter out in international waters, had been forced into the harbour at Barbate in order to shelter from a storm.
It prompted the Guardia Civil to send out the officers into the choppy waters to face off against a number of narco boats in an attempt to either arrest them or chase them off.
But it ended in tragedy, with authorities suspecting the deadly attack was premeditated.
The narcolancha deliberately accelerated into the officers’ clearly marked police boat.
El Baqqali is known to be part of a notorious organisation that traffics hash from Morocco to Spain.
After the fatal incident, he fled to Morocco, where he remained hidden until his arrest this week.
Three other individuals, who were also aboard the drug boat that night, are still at large.
International arrest warrants have been issued for their capture.
Investigations into the incident took a sudden turn in May when the six suspects initially picked up over the officers’ deaths were cleared.
Analysis of video footage from the night of the attack showed that although they were present in the port that night, they were operating a different drug boat.
Attention then shifted to El Baqqali, who was fingered as the boat’s pilot by one of the original suspects.
