Migrant Smugglers Charge Up to $20,000 for High-Speed Boat Trips from Morocco to Spain

The crossing is made on a semi-rigid boat - like those used by drug traffickers -, 12 meters long and equipped with two very powerful outboard motors. These taxi boats regularly arrive on the Costa del Sol, confirms Immaculada Rodriguez, the general secretary of the Unified Association of Civil Guards (AUGC) of Malaga, to Malaga Hoy, specifying that this is the new means used by criminal networks for migrant trafficking from Morocco. The journey takes barely half an hour and costs between 10,000 and 20,000 euros for each passenger.

"The goal is to make money. Each boat can accommodate about 20 people; you just have to multiply to know what they earn," Rodriguez says. The members of the migrant trafficking networks blend in with the latter during these trips to avoid being caught. They are aware of the penalties they face for migrant trafficking, belonging to a criminal organization, illegal entry into Spanish territory with a boat prohibited from circulation since 2018.

Experts in the fight against drug trafficking see the regular arrival of these taxi boats as a threat to the future of hashish trafficking from Morocco. But others think the opposite. This is the case of Francisco Mena, president of the Anti-Drug Coordination Alternativas del Campo de Gibraltar, who assures that drug traffickers will continue to use this route "to avoid police pressure," recalling that the Malaga coast stretches over 175 kilometers and that the number of agents deployed in the area as well as the resources available to them are insufficient to combat this traffic.