Alleged drug dealer Francisco Tejón, powerful leader of the Castaña gang, was injured in the leg in a shooting in La Línea de la Concepción (Cádiz) this morning. A 34-year-old man, whose identity has not been released, was also shot with him, 44, in the same area. The National Police are now looking for whoever shot them after Isco Tejón himself notified the attacker and helped identify him.
The events happened after 6:15 a.m. this Thursday on Avenida del Burgo de La Línea, the police confirmed in a brief statement. The incident was the result of a brawl that took place early that morning at the county fair in the neighboring town of Los Barrios. There, the agents had to intervene to break up the fight. The Castañas’ older brother was among those involved, according to the local newspaper Área and EL PAÍS confirmed with sources close to the investigation.
It was Isco Tejón himself who called 091 to report the incident that had already happened in La Línea. In addition, both he and the other injured person worked to identify the alleged attacker, whom police want to locate. Agents currently have “an extensive search device at their disposal to try to locate the perpetrator as his whereabouts are unknown after he left his home this morning,” confirmed police, who have so far failed to provide further details to name the incident.
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The Castaña gang isn’t having their best time. Since last April, the headquarters of the provincial court in Algeciras has tried more than 150 people in the south’s largest major drug trafficking case, some 70 of whom have accepted compliance agreements. Isco Tejón is not under investigation in this case, but his older brother Antonio is, accused of being the leader of an organization that shipped hashish off the coast of Morocco.
Both brothers, known as the “kings of hashish” and believed to be worth €30 million by local investigators, were actually in the dock together in the “Operation Ronal” trial. The first major trial after the police chain set up by the government in Campo de Gibraltar in mid-2018 came to nothing. In November 2022, the district court acquitted the investigators of the main causes they had been charged with. The only one who ended up being sentenced to three years and a month in prison was Isco himself, but only for possessing 5.1 kilos of hashish in a house believed to be his property.
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It’s not the first time Isco has made headlines beyond his criminal activities. After being investigated by Operation Ronal in 2016 and on a search and capture for almost two years, he dared to take part in the Candela reggaeton video clip while on the run from justice. It happened in 2018 and police interpreted it as an act of hubris, which he denied when he confronted agents months later.
The Castaña gang – although both brothers always claimed they worked separately – gained so much power in the Campo de Gibraltar that they were able to gain the trust of Moroccan hashish producers and control much of the drugs they used. She came through the province of Cadiz. Recent raids have severely limited the organization’s movement capacity, although anti-drug investigators believe it is still active.