Drug Traffickers Exploit Guadalquivir River: Spain’s New Cocaine Highway Challenges Authorities

The era when various clans were transiting drugs via Andalusia, with a historical preference for the Strait of Gibraltar, which separates two countries (Spain and Morocco) and two continents (Europe and Africa) by just fourteen kilometers, is over. These transit corridors are now so secure that drug traffickers have found a large Spanish river to pass their goods through. "We have just been delivered seven robust and fast Aister H360 patrol boats, and that’s good. But the opponent remains much stronger, he now has war weapons, and he infiltrates everywhere," laments Luis Baltar, from the majority union Siat of customs surveillance, to Libération.

Since the fall of 2024, the narco-lanchas have changed their strategy. Their boats, now illegal in Spain and purchased in Portugal, "are now entering via the Guadalquivir, the great river of Andalusia, to introduce cocaine exclusively," reports the same French media. "Seeing that the Gibraltar area is more controlled, the boats enter it with impunity," laments Baltar, noting that the traffickers "then go up the meanders of the river as far as Seville." In Coria del Río, a pretty town of 31,000 inhabitants with its old-fashioned landing stage, the subject is fueling conversations. In December, the police seized seven tons of cocaine and AK-47 machine guns at La Hermandad, a farm on the outskirts of the town. A record, we are told.

"There is a humiliating side. Their shuttles glide at full speed before our eyes at all hours of the day and night. Recently, the Sevillians have seen narco-lanchas pass next to the La Cartuja stadium, right in the city center, without being bothered," fumes David Diaz, a socialist councilor with contagious energy, from the lively bar El Puebla. Lisardo Capote, head of the customs surveillance service in Algeciras, on the Palmones beach, one of the eight municipalities in the Algeciras bay, knows their modus operandi. "The Colombian cartels have seen that the North American market is saturated but not yet Europe, and that the Guadalquivir and its surroundings are an ideal entry point. They do business with local clans who supply fuel to their boats coming directly from South America or passing through West Africa," he says.

He will add: "There are also local mafias who bring them war weapons at sea, or who brief them on the movements of the Spanish security forces. It’s like a multinational with its subsidiaries, its lawyers, its informants... Try to fight against that!" David Díaz resumes: "It doesn’t affect us directly yet, it’s drugs that are passing through, but it’s worrying. In Coria del Río, we have a 19% youth unemployment rate, who could be tempted by an easy and lavish lifestyle."