Algeciras, the highway for Moroccan hashish into Europe

Lisardo Capote, head of the region’s customs surveillance service, very often sees drug traffickers transporting hashish produced in Morocco to Europe via the Spanish bay of Algeciras in the early morning. A speedboat unloads hundreds of kilos of drugs there. “There is a kind of security cordon provided by teenagers equipped with a mobile phone in case of trouble. Then there is a group of people known as the ‘collas’ who unload the boat and put its cargo into vehicles. Generally, these are off-road vehicles that enable large quantities of goods to be transported to a secure location,” he tells RFI.

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This operation is commonplace. Those who organise it evade customs officers, the national police and the Civil Guard most of the time. With semi-rigid speedboats equipped with at least three 300-horsepower engines each, enabling them to reach speeds of up to 120 km/hour, drug traffickers taunt police officers whose boats are slower than the speedboats. “Our resources are completely inadequate. We need a much greater capacity to be able to act, more human and material resources,” confirms Luis Baltar, a member of a customs officers’ union.

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As a result, police officers struggle to confront these drug traffickers, who are both well organised and powerful. According to an expert, it is the equivalent of a Formula 1 race on the high seas. In February 2024, two Civil Guards were killed after being crushed by traffickers’ speedboat. Last March, another was left seriously injured. This flourishing “business” has consequences for society. Drug traffickers recruit disadvantaged young people living in poverty.

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“The worst damage caused by drugs is the social deterioration they create in certain neighbourhoods. Not because of drug consumption, but because of the lifestyle. Drug trafficking feeds on unemployment, poverty, social exclusion and a lack of opportunity. It therefore easily attracts young people who, with little education, are excluded from the labour market,” says Francisco Mena, president of Coordinadora Alternativas, a collective that fights the ravages of hashish.