The Popular Party has sent a message of maximum force this Thursday against the advance of drug trafficking and organized crime in Spain. In a meeting held at the national headquarters in Génova with the main police unions and Civil Guard associations, Alberto Núñez Feijóo's leadership has outlined the main lines of a future Action Plan against Organized Crime that aims to make the fight against mafias a state priority.
The Deputy Secretary of Institutional Regeneration of the PP, Cuca Gamarra, and the spokesperson for the Interior, Ana Vázquez, conveyed to representatives of SUP, JUPOL, CEP, AUGC, JUCIL, and other organizations the commitment to "comprehensively" reinforce the human, legal, and material resources of the State Security Forces and Corps.
The meeting comes at a particularly sensitive time, marked by the resurgence of drug trafficking-related violence in various parts of the country and by growing concern in the Strait of Gibraltar area. The PP considers that Spain is going through a "critical situation" due to the strengthening of increasingly violent and better-organized criminal networks.
Mafias on the Spanish coast
Popular Party sources warn that mafias have stopped operating solely in Campo de Gibraltar to extend to Huelva, Almería, and other points on the Spanish coast, where drug-trafficking speedboats have become a constant threat to officers and citizens. As the party recalled during the meeting, the latest National Security Annual Report estimates that more than 600 boats linked to drug trafficking operate in the Strait of Gibraltar area.
The plan being prepared by Feijóo includes measures with strong political and penal impact. Among them are the provision of non-lethal means to neutralize drug-trafficking speedboats, the toughening of the Penal Code against organized crime, and the attribution of specific competencies to the National High Court for drug trafficking-related offenses.
Furthermore, the PP wants to promote specialized jurisdictions, strengthen the legal protection of police officers, civil guards, prison officials, and customs agents, and declare Campo de Gibraltar and the Andalusian coast as a Zone of Special Singularity, a historical demand of the police forces.
Recognition of a high-risk profession
The formation also insists on recognizing national police officers and civil guards as a high-risk profession, a measure approved in the Interior Commission of Congress but which, according to the Popular Party's complaints, has once again been blocked by the Government this very week.
During the meeting, representatives of the associations conveyed their concern about the lack of resources and the increase in criminal pressure on agents deployed in the most sensitive areas. The PP maintains that many officers work “in inadmissible conditions” against organizations that already use war weapons and act with increasing aggressiveness.
The political debate has intensified following the latest violent episodes recorded in Catalonia and Andalusia. The recent shootings in Barcelona and its metropolitan area, along with the serious incidents linked to drug trafficking in Huelva and Almería, have once again placed citizen security at the center of political confrontation.
In that context, the Popular Party recalls the controversy generated by the words of the Vice President of the Government, María Jesús Montero, who described the murder of two civil guards run over by a drug-trafficking boat during a pursuit as a “work accident” , statements that caused strong indignation among police associations and unions.
“Feijóo will be with the National Police and the Civil Guard. Faced with a Government that abandons them, the Popular Party will always be on the side of those who guarantee our security,” Gamarra assured at the end of the meeting.
With the focus on the deterioration of public security and the advance of mafias, the PP seeks to make Interior policy one of its government pillars, and to present itself as the party of the “forceful response of the State” against organized crime.