How Marbella became the world capital of organized crime

It is definitely an extremely interesting one case study in world forensic chronicles: how a relatively small town in the south of Spain has become its world headquarters organized crime.

Marbella with population 140,000 inhabitants (like her Larissa, say) is a city on the Costa del Sol in which today they live above 113 gangs of at least 59 different nationalities and crime rates are unprecedented.

But how did we get here? It all started in the 60’s, during the “economic miracle” of Spain, when Andalusia became the absolutely favorite tourist destination in southern Europe. “In the beginning, ordinary citizens came here and soon followed the jet-setters and the rich who discovered in Marbella a summer paradise. “The development of the region was achieved, but at a great price”, writes a relevant article Guardian.

As the author and researcher explains in the British newspaper Antonio Romero, “She was the Francoist agreement: You, the criminals, come here to relax, do not commit crimes and bring your money with you “. And indeed they came: Yugoslavs, Soviets and Moroccans and from 1990 onwards Russians, Georgians, Serbs, Croats and Dutch.

But what is it that Marbella has that makes it an attractive destination for all gangs and criminals? First of all geographical location: Costa del Sol is connected to the south by sea with Morocco, the largest producer hashish in the world, while just an hour away by car is its main entry point cocaine in Europe, the port of Algeciras.

“It is also very important that Gibraltar is very close to Marbella, one tax heaven separated from Spain by a simple barbed wire. If we take into account the fact that in the surrounding mountains of Malaga and Granada most of the European marijuana, “It is completely understandable, because the city has become the center of organized crime”, the article notes.

“Until recently, organized crime was for the most part completely invisible in the region,” he told the Guardian. Ricardo Alvarez Osorio, lawyer of many local mobsters. “These are rich, wealthy people who live well and spend a lot. “They are the ones who together with the sheikhs developed Marbella and no one has a problem with that,” he added.

The areas of crime are carefully separated: the Russians are of course the ones who move a lot of the threads, but in reality each national team has its own “specialization”: for example, the French bring hashish from Morocco and Irish control imports of cocaine and arms.

Adjacent to these gangs are the particularly violent warring factions from Serbia and other Balkan countries, the Neapolitan Camorra, but also the hard-skinned British gangs from Liverpool and Manchester that lie in the center of Marbella. Residents of the area are doomed to live in fear, “since no matter what the police do, nothing is going to change, because very simply drug money makes people move.”

“It is not that Marbella is a very violent city,” a local police officer told the newspaper, “but it is extremely unpredictable. “Patrol officers never go out without wearing bulletproof vests.” extensive article in the British Guardian. The downside to the whole situation is that the police of Marbella rely on much less resources than any other provincial town in Spain and despite the much higher crime rates compared to other cities.

The city police department receives about 150 calls a day and handles about 32,000 cases a year – numbers that are “appropriate” in cities two or even three times larger. Lack of resources and staff is the constant complaint of police officers who spoke to the Guardian. “We only have four patrols,” said an officer serving in Marbella, “and when [πρώην πρωθυπουργοί] Jose Maria Atnar and Felipe Gonzalez vacationing here this summer, we have to assign them two extra police officers for their safety. We don’t even have enough bulletproof vests. “

“Now, we are much more ‘ahead’ of the police, we are not so worried. We have bigger resources and better technology “, one is proud of Italian mobster based in Marbella, while the law enforcement agencies are bidding on it: “It is valid. “The reality is that we are always one step behind,” said the head of the Udiko Police Department. Rodriguez Puerta. Another police officer added: “We have nothing in our hands. The “bad guys” are miles ahead while we are hindered by any kind of legal bureaucracy. Every month we have to justify the telephone movements and the monitoring. It’s like the only thing we have to be a little [σκυλί] chihuahua, when in fact what we need is a huge pit bull».

“Marbella is the UN gangster,” a local police official told a Spanish newspaper. The country, which presented an extensive report on the action of organized crime in the city. “It simply came to our notice then “Uber-use” of organized crime“, Stressed a local prosecutor who spoke to the newspaper.

But not only the police, but also the old-fashioned mobsters have complaints. “The young people who are coming now have no codes, no values, they have no respect for anything,” an old Spanish gangster told the Spanish newspaper, revealing another aspect of crime in the city. They crawl on the streets while their bosses are in Dubai. “

Finally, we have him factor of fear. Most victims of assaults refuse to testify or do not even report the incident to the police. Recently one Polish was admitted to hospital with bullets in both legs. He had been shot by a gang Swedish mobsters, however, he refused to testify. “

And, in the absence of competent policing, the this situation is perpetuated in this small and beautiful town in the south of Spain…