Laurence Dollimore
IT’S no secret that the Costa del Sol is a hotbed for mafia activity, with dozens of international gangs operating along the coastline.
In the past couple of weeks, this criminal underworld has spilled into the streets, with three gangland shootings rocking Marbella and Benalmadena.
READ MORE: Pictured: German man shot in the genitals outside a Marbella gym
But while just a few years ago, men were being shot to death outside churches or their homes, now, the modus operandi appears to have changed.
Last week, a German man of Arab origin (victim pictured above, right) was shot in the legs and genitals outside a popular Marbella gym and padel club.
On Christmas Eve, another German man was shot in his leg outside the Cristamar shopping centre in Puerto Banus (victim pictured being taken away on a stretcher above, left) – just two days before two men escaped with their lives in Benalmadena after being shot at next to a ravine.
Speaking to El Confidencial about some of the mafias operating on the coast, one local police source said: “Now they don’t kill, they mutilate and punish, leaving the victims disabled for life.”
“Hitmen come and go on the same day from other countries,” he said, adding that the method of ‘settling scores’ had changed.
The new method has its origins in the Italian gambizzazioni mafia, and consists of shooting at the legs without the intention of killing.
The technique was used by the mafia and Italy’s infamous Red Brigades in the late 60s and early 80s. The impact on victims is often irreversible.
The police source added that the new motto for drug traffickers in Spain looking to settle scores is: “No to the head, yes to the thighs and legs.”
The source said: “Now the trend is to give a lesson. They don’t kill them, but they leave them crippled for life and with visible wounds… it is more effective to give a lesson of this type…
“It is very effective, because it has the component of humiliation, they leave the victim without his manhood and they take away his strength.”
He added that it is more appealing to the hitmen as they ‘do not expose themselves to sentences as high as those for murder.’
