Laurence Dollimore
A SO-CALLED ‘narcolancha’ has been intercepted while transporting 200 cans of fuel along the Guadalquivir River.
The semi-rigid boat, known to be used by drug traffickers, was stopped in Lebrija, Sevilla, after being secretly tracked by the Guardia Civil.
The vessel had first been spotted in the sea off Chipiona in Cadiz, where it entered the mouth of the Guadalquivir River in Sanlucar de Barrameda – a resort town loved by both Spanish and foreign tourists.
It then travelled down the river with the aim of providing fuel for other boats transporting drugs, police claim, however it was intercepted in Lebrija.
The pursuit along the Guadalquivir is just one of many in recent months, as the river is increasingly becoming a smuggling hub for drug mafias.
While it was previously used more for hashish coming in from Morocco, it has recently become a hotbed for cocaine traffickers.
It comes after seven tonnes of the powdered drug were recently seized along the river in Coria del Rio, Sevilla, the largest amount ever brought into southern Spain on a semi-rigid boat.
Several weeks later three tonnes of cocaine arrived in La Pubela del Rio, a sleepy village near the river bed, and just one of many towns that acts as a warehouse to store drugs in.
In recent weeks, several ‘narcolanchas’ have been filmed riding up and down the Guadalquivir river, sparking concern among locals.
The brazen narcos have been recorded travelling in broad daylight and even near to the city of Sevilla, one of Spain’s most visited destinations.
Sevilla government minister Francisco Toscano said that police pressure in other areas has forced traffickers to move to the river, but insisted their activity ‘is nothing new’.
Last weekend, seven narcolanchas were caught by a drone in broad daylight at the height of La Algaba, also very close to Sevilla city.
It comes after gun-toting narcos were secretly filmed by police loading a van full of drugs in the neighbouring province of Huelva.
Footage shared by the Guardia Civil shows a group of men moving bales of hashish from a boat into the back of the van near the border with Portugal.
The traffickers can be seen brandishing military grade weapons, with some donning face masks and balaclavas.
The AUGC police union said on X: “This is not a film. These are images of the spectacular drug stash in Huelva with assault rifles, in broad daylight in front of the Muelle de las Carabelas, Huelva.”
The organisation then took a jab at the country’s Interior Minister Fernando Marlaska, adding: “Meanwhile, Minister Marlaska continues to deny the serious security problem and fails to recognise the risk facing Guardia Civil officers.”
It comes after the force warned this month that they are not well enough equipped to deal with the ‘growing’ scourge of drug trafficking across Andalucia.
At least 12 individuals have been arrested as part of the investigation into the video footage.
Four were most recently cuffed in Lagos, a town in the Algarve in Portugal, and await extradition to Spain.
During a dramatic armed police chase, at least one of the suspects took refuge in a school filled with students, but luckily no one was injured.
According to Spanish reports, the operation was aimed at dismantling a ‘powerful’ criminal gang based in Punta Umbria, Huelva.
The mafia is accused of transporting drugs from northern Morocco to the coast of Huelva and various estuaries.
It is just one of several new routes being taken by drug traffickers in recent months and years, after police presence was ramped up along the shores of the Costa del Sol and the Campo de Gibraltar.
The Guadalquivir river and its estuaries in the province of Cadiz is another preferred route of late, with multiple skirmishes between police and drug traffickers reported over the past 12 months.
It also emerged last week that children are being used to smuggle drugs into mainland Spain.
The Policia Nacional said it had detained two minors and an adult in Algeciras, near the Gibraltar border, for alleged drug trafficking.
The trio, who had taken a boat from the North African Spanish enclave of Ceuta, had strapped bricks of hashish to their bodies.
The drugs, weighing over 2kg in total, were labelled ‘lemon hash’, with one photo of a suspect showing how multiple bricks were taped to his stomach and back.
It comes after the Guardia Civil this month claimed they are still ‘unarmed’ one year after the killings of two officers and that drug trafficking is growing and ‘taking root in coastal towns.’
The cry came from Jucil, the association representing the rank-and-file, who it claims has to combat the growing narco scourge with insufficient resources that endangers lives.
Officers David Nuñez and Miguel Angel Gonzalez were killed on February 9 last year when their smaller Zodiac speed boat was rammed by a narco boat sheltering from a storm in the port of Barbate.
“One year later, and we are still unarmed against the drug traffickers,” said general secretary Ernesto Vilariño.
“The situation has not improved in the area, in fact it has gotten worse, and the Guardia Civil still has insufficient resources to deal with drug trafficking.
“The increasing sightings of drug boats and the petrol boats that supply them is a clear sign that the problem is taking root in coastal towns.”
While the Interior Ministry has claimed the fact that drug seizures were down in 2024 – still a staggering 150 tonnes of hash and 44 tonnes of cocaine – is evidence that overall trafficking is down, Jucil disagrees.
“The Ministry attributes this to a supposed lower production in Morocco and the shifting of trafficking routes, but the reality is that there are fewer seizures because there are not enough resources to intercept the drugs,” it said.
It points to the drop in street-level prices for these drugs as proof that the quantity of drugs entering Spain without being detected is on the increase.
Jucil complained that the patrol boats delivered to the Guardia Civil are too few and in poor condition, allowing the narco boats to dominate the Strait of Gibraltar.
Meanwhile, their vehicles are often lacking in essential safety systems for high speed pursuits and many have over 250,000km on the clock.
Jucil states that the authorities are letting them down not just in their lack of resources but also in their failure to open an inquiry into the sequence of events that led up to the deaths of Nuñez and Gonzalez a year ago.
“At a political and hierarchical level, it is as if nothing had happened,” Vilariño said.
“The state has failed its security forces, and today we continue to face drug trafficking without adequate means and under life-threatening conditions.
“We cannot allow the death of our colleagues to be forgotten, nor can we allow ourselves to mourn new tragedies in a year,” Vilariño continued.
“Drug trafficking is a serious problem that must be tackled now, and this also involves the recomposition of [specialised drug fighting unit] the OCON-Sur.”
“Drug trafficking is destroying families, and this is due to the lack of efficient means for the agents and the lack of social commitment in the province to prevent young people from trying to make a living with something as unsafe as drug trafficking,” added Agustín Domínguez, provincial secretary of Jucil in Cádiz.
