Five drug traffickers arrested after their speedboat collides with Civil Guard patrol vessel in Adra, Almería
A drug-smuggling speedboat collided with a Maritime Service patrol vessel off the coast of Adra. Five occupants were arrested and at least one was admitted to intensive care.
Collision between drug speedboat and Civil Guard leaves several injured off Adra coast
A drug-smuggling speedboat collided on Sunday morning with a patrol vessel of the Maritime Service of the Civil Guard off the coast of Adra, in Almería. According to ABC, five people were arrested and between two and three crew members of the vessel sustained injuries of varying severity.
Civil Guard officers emerged uninjured from the impact. The injured were evacuated urgently to the University Hospital of the West, in El Ejido, where at least one of them was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) due to the severity of his injuries. The Civil Guard Command in Almería confirmed the collision to ABC, though it provided no additional details about the incident.
"This is not an isolated incident": alert from AUGC
The Unified Association of Civil Guards (AUGC) described the event as serious. Víctor Vega Romero, the group's spokesperson in Almería, recalled that the collision occurred at the same location where, on another occasion, "a colleague from the Customs Surveillance Service nearly lost his life".
Vega stressed that the incident is not exceptional: "This is not an isolated incident. It is the third serious episode in barely a month, following those in Huelva, Águilas and now Adra". In an audio sent to the newspaper, the spokesperson described how a Civil Guard vessel attempted to intercept the drug speedboat: "Fortunately, we do not have any incident to regret for the civil guards, but this will continue in this manner".
The AUGC representative also warned of rising violence linked to cocaine trafficking. "It is a drug that brings more violence, that brings mafia, that brings weapons of war... we have even seen a rocket launcher", Vega stated. "We are seeing that we have a border, that of the entire coastline of Andalusia, that does not exist; the owners are the mafias", he added.
Criticism over lack of resources and Ministry "inaction"
The association pointed directly at the Ministry of Interior, headed by Fernando Grande-Marlaska. "These episodes are occurring frequently due to inaction by the Ministry of Interior", Vega protested, criticising the shortage of material, legislative and aerial resources available to officers.
The spokesperson noted that Almería lacks an operational helicopter for maritime surveillance operations. "We saw this past Sunday several drug speedboats along the entire Andalusian coastline, from Huelva to Almería, because they roam freely and travel without restriction", he lamented. Vega further described the technical inequality between both sides: traffickers use vessels with four engines, whilst Civil Guard resources "in many cases cannot even put to sea due to lack of crew".
Source: ABC