OCON-Sur: debate over its return as drug trafficking violence spreads across Andalusia
Four deaths in August in Utrera and Isla Cristina reignite calls to reactivate the Guardia Civil's elite unit, dissolved in 2022. Its own former members doubt whether it is viable.
The ghost of OCON-Sur reappears after drug trafficking settlements in Andalusia
Four people were shot dead in just three days during August in Utrera and Isla Cristina (Huelva), in drug-trafficking-related score-settling. The wave of violence has revived, according to El País, the political debate over whether Spain should restore OCON-Sur, the Guardia Civil's elite unit dissolved by the Interior Ministry in September 2022.
The president of the Andalusian Regional Government, Juanma Moreno (PP), was the latest to publicly demand its return, citing an "escalation of insecurity" that professional associations and anti-drug prosecutors have been denouncing for months. "This is abandoned. Drugs come in from everywhere and the problem is that they're not reaching the heads of organisations. They're not reaching the top," says an officer who held a position of responsibility within OCON.
However, those who made up the unit are the first to dampen the enthusiasm. "Creating OCON Sur today would not make sense with the working systems we have now," notes one of its former members.
Four years of operations and a legacy in merchandise
The Organismo de Coordinación de Operaciones contra el Narcotráfico (Drug-Trafficking Operations Coordination Body) — the full designation behind the acronym — was born in September 2018 as a response to a situation that the Government itself described as extraordinary in the Campo de Gibraltar: the area was even registering kidnappings of detainees from hospitals. Its chief, David Oliva, raised in the region and hardened through the fight against trafficking in Barbate and the Cádiz Command, "knew the system's shortcomings, so he created the unit by addressing those," according to a source in his circle.
The accumulated balance over four years speaks for itself: 1.2 tonnes of drugs seized, 72 million euros confiscated and 12,800 arrests. This record is still printed on t-shirts that the roughly 260 officers who passed through the unit order and distribute periodically. The latest order also included patches, bracelets and penknives.
"If dad comes back — referring to David Oliva — the 200 return," says one of its members. But he himself acknowledges that the epic and reality are different things.
24/7 shifts that "broke up marriages"
The operational success of OCON-Sur came at considerable human cost. The 150 officers on the permanent roster — out of the 260 who rotated through the group — did not rest on public holidays or weekends. "We worked 24/7. There were three operations in which we carried out 40 raids in a single day," recounts one of the Guardia Civil officers.
An Andalusian commander of the same force confirms the results but adds the cost: "These were dreadful hours that destroyed families and broke up marriages. There were many people who requested reassignment; it couldn't continue like that, there had to be compliance with the law regarding working conditions." This regime of extreme working hours is, according to several internal sources, one of the main obstacles to a hypothetical reactivation.
Suspicions inside and outside the force
OCON-Sur's major operations also generated institutional friction. "We were a regional unit that became international. The Danes would come wanting to meet with us. We eclipsed the police and central units," acknowledges a former member. The headlines followed one after another week after week, but not all results withstood subsequent scrutiny. "Out of thousands of arrests, you would have to know how many were actually convicted. They did their job, there were some very good operations, others run-of-the-mill and others very poor," assesses a judicial source who regularly worked with the group.
Precisely at the moment of greatest media visibility for the unit, the Interior Ministry announced its end. The official version — a reorganisation to convert the temporary into permanent — remains what the ministry defends. In practice, the 150 officers were distributed among the judicial police forces of the command units of six Andalusian provinces: all except Córdoba and Jaén.
The judicial shadow over David Oliva
Seven months after the announcement of dissolution, in April 2023, an investigation into Oliva came to light involving alleged disclosure of secrets and bribery. The case stemmed from a parallel investigation by the Guardia Civil and Police Internal Affairs into alleged collaboration with drug trafficking, which was shelved after it was established that it was based on unverified information and impossible surveillance operations. Oliva still has a pending court appearance for the case that survived the dismissal.
This process has cast a shadow that conditions the debate over any replacement at the head of a potential new unit. "Let's see who would be brave enough to take the helm, after what happened to David," notes the Andalusian commander. "OCON generated a lot of pressure. It had to be removed, but who gave that order? We still don't have an answer today," adds a former member.
Interior defends its strategy with statistics
The Interior Ministry rejects the narrative of failure. Sources from the department stress that the unit "did not disappear, it was restructured" and point out that the posts dedicated to the anti-drug fight in Andalusian command units have grown since then: to the 150 officers coming from OCON, 240 more were added.
The ministry also points to the evolution of operations as validation of its model: from the 6,583 operations recorded in 2021, the year of OCON-Sur's maximum activity, the figure rose to 13,587 in subsequent years. This doubled figure is the main official defence against those demanding the return of the elite unit.
While the political debate remains open, the former officers who lived through those years of unrelenting operations keep the connection alive in another way: by ordering merchandise bearing the emblem of a unit that, on paper, no longer exists.
Source: El País