Moreno demands Sánchez reactivate OCON-Sur anti-drug unit, dissolved in 2022
The president of the Andalusian Regional Government demands that the central Government reactivate the elite Civil Guard unit against drug trafficking, abolished four years ago without official explanation.
Moreno calls on Sánchez to resurrect Civil Guard anti-drug unit dissolved in 2022
The president of the Andalusian Regional Government, Juanma Moreno, has sent a letter to the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, demanding the reactivation of the Coordination Body for Operations Against Drug Trafficking (OCON) South, according to elpais.com. It is an elite Civil Guard unit created in 2018 to halt drug entry through Andalusian coasts and dismantled by the Ministry of the Interior in September 2022 without any public explanation being offered for that decision.
Moreno bases his request on the surge in drug trafficking mafia activity in recent months in various areas of the region and on what he describes as insufficient resources available to the State security forces and bodies to confront them. In his letter, the Andalusian president expresses his "concern" that Andalusia has become, in his view, "an operations base" for various drug clans and networks.
Drug boats on the Guadalquivir and three deaths in a week
"We are no longer talking about a particular district, but rather the entire coastline and part of the interior are targets of drug traffickers. We have become familiar with the sight of how, in broad daylight, drug boats operate and take refuge, for example, in the bed of the Guadalquivir river," Moreno writes in the letter. The regional leader recalls that a week ago a man was murdered in Utrera (Seville) in a shooting, and that the following day three people—a woman eight months pregnant, another aged 62 and a minor—lost their lives in similar circumstances in Isla Cristina (Huelva).
Moreno also cites four Civil Guards who died in the line of duty in the past two years in Barbate and Huelva while combating drug trafficking: David, Miguel Ángel, Germán and Jerónimo. "We face an escalation of insecurity that requires a forceful response from the State," the Andalusian president emphasises in his letter.
A unit that tripled drug seizures
Between 2018 and 2022, OCON-Sur, comprising around 150 officers, participated in major operations against hashish trafficking in southern Spain. During that period, the quantities of drugs seized tripled those recorded before its launch. Its results were recognised by the Interior Minister himself, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, who in June 2021 decorated its top official, then Major David Oliva, later promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. Sources from the armed institute described him as "the scourge of drug traffickers"; the Ministry of the Interior even assigned him security details after receiving death threats from criminal organisations.
Despite these results, the Ministry of the Interior dissolved the unit in September 2022 as part of what it then described as a restructuring of Civil Guard units dedicated to drug trafficking, reassigning its members to other posts.
The indictment of the unit's head
Months after the dissolution, National Court judge Alejandro Abascal indicted Lieutenant Colonel Oliva and two other officers for the alleged crimes of bribery and disclosure of secrets. According to the investigations, Oliva allegedly pressured a subordinate to confirm or deny whether he was being investigated by Civil Guard Internal Affairs. In fact, he was not, but the exchange of WhatsApp messages with the other two defendants led to his indictment. The trial for these acts has not yet been held.
The response from the Government delegate in Andalusia
Moreno's words provoked an immediate response from the Government delegate in Andalusia, Pedro Fernández, who described as "concerning" the "lack of knowledge, ignorance and disregard" which, in his view, the Andalusian president demonstrates in calling for OCON-Sur to be restored. In a statement, Fernández accused Moreno of trying to "divert attention from his absence for weeks during the fires and earthquakes" affecting the autonomous community.
The delegate recalled that among the first measures adopted by Sánchez upon arriving at La Moncloa was the launch in 2018 of the special security plan for the Campo de Gibraltar, which he described as "the first time in democracy that a police strategy against drug trafficking has been adopted" and as "a pioneering tool throughout Europe that is serving as an example to other countries for its global and multidisciplinary approach".
Fernández stressed that OCON-Sur was "a temporary structure, designed to provisionally respond to the needs of the first special plan" and that in September 2022 "it was transformed into a permanent structure, with all its members integrated into the Civil Guard establishment to provide a response better adapted to the dynamics of criminal groups". The delegate also emphasised that "cuts made during PP administrations" in police staffing levels have been reversed: "Andalusia currently has around 30,500 Civil Guards and police officers, 4,096 more than in 2018," he specified. On this basis, he considered that the Andalusian president's statements "lack rigour".
Source: Google News ES — Crime (es)