Málaga: "WhatsApp drug dealing" drives cocaine sales surge in historic centre
Police warn of a "pandemic" of cocaine deliveries via WhatsApp in Málaga, where tourists and professionals acquire the drug with a message and a location. Arrests multiply at weekends.
Cocaine sales via WhatsApp surge in Málaga city centre
According to The Olive Press, Málaga police have issued warnings about an epidemic of cocaine deliveries through WhatsApp in the heart of the historic city. The phenomenon known as "telecoca" has generated two or three arrests each weekend, with access so simple that traffickers describe the process as easy as "having a shot".
Local police officers patrolling nightlife venues report that the drug is no longer confined to exclusive VIP spaces. "It is now a pandemic, it is everywhere," police sources told the newspaper Malaga Hoy. Investigators have identified among regular buyers pharmacists, doctors, waiters, taxi drivers and even police officers.
The operating system is elementary: a text message and a shared location on the map are enough for a dealer to deliver the goods within minutes. In a recent undercover operation, officers from the Local Police's GIP unit observed how a trafficker approached a group of people waiting to enter a nightclub. After witnessing the exchange of money for a small bag, uniformed officers detained the suspects and seized several 1.5-gramme containers of cocaine.
Foreign buyers are frequently caught making purchases whilst waiting in queues in front of popular venues. The price remains notably stable at around 50 euros per gramme, reaching 60 in the worst cases. This figure is practically identical to what the drug cost three decades ago, when Spain still used the peseta.
Experts attribute the price stability to the massive volume of cocaine flowing into the country, keeping the street valuation of the substance artificially low.
Source: The Olive Press