A pleasure boat was traveling along the shore while some of its occupants were thrown into the sea. This happened with up to seven people while the boat was still far from shore. Those who fell into the water were migrants of North African origin, and one of them died trying to reach the shore. It happened on October 21 last year in Los Caños de Meca, Barbate. The Civil Guard has arrested those responsible for this trip, four suspected drug traffickers, who are accused of murder, violating the rights of foreign citizens and violating public health.
The arrests for this police operation, known as Inbalu/Lonas, were announced this Monday, just four days after three other people threw 35 people off a drug boat between the coasts of San Fernando and Chiclana de Border with violence and threats. Four of them drowned. In the case of the Barbate incident, the suspected smugglers used a recreational boat. They threw the migrants back “with complete disregard for their lives,” said a statement from the Armed Institute in Cadiz.
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The Guardia Civil became aware of the event after eyewitnesses warned about what was happening in the sea near Los Castillejos beach, an area popularly known as Little Lulú. The operations center alerted citizen security forces to the presence of seven people in the water, “still far from shore,” “who were desperate and exhausted from their tireless attempts to reach land.” Upon arrival at the beach, officers found one of the migrants performing first aid maneuvers on another boat occupant lying on the sand, the Cadiz command report said. Paramedics continued resuscitation efforts for half an hour but could do nothing to save the 31-year-old man’s life.
During the initial investigation, investigators discovered that the trip was organized by several smugglers with the intention of “profiting from the illegal introduction of immigrants by sea.” During the investigation – carried out by the Barbate Criminal Investigation Department and the Cadiz Command Information Service – the agents identified four organizers of the trip. Investigators were also suspected of an attempt to thwart a warehouse containing numerous bales of hashish in the port of Barbate.
The suspects were arrested on November 19th. That night, officers carried out five searches of houses and one of the recreational boat, with the intervention of several units of the Provincial Civil Guard. The four people under investigation, who come from Barbate and have numerous police records, are now on provisional release and accused of being suspected perpetrators of a crime of murder, a crime against the rights of foreign citizens and another crime against public health.
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Years ago, state forces discovered that the hashish mafia was also using its operations in northern Morocco to transport migrants. According to Civil Guard intelligence, it is not a very widespread activity, but there are organizations that use it as a “profitable operation,” taking advantage of the fact that they already have the boats at sea, according to a deployed combat command the drug trade in the south. In these cases, it is more common for drug traffickers to take advantage of the little space the drug bundles leave on the boat to embark people, for which they can charge up to 10,000 euros per trip.
This form of crime has been detected in Spain since at least 2018 in a phenomenon also known as taxi boats. These are usually boats with a maximum length of 12 meters and two 250 hp engines, which are also traditionally used for tobacco smuggling or drug trafficking, as was the case with the drug boat that was involved in the deaths of four migrants in Chiclana last week .
Although agents had previously determined that this operation was not as widespread in the hashish underworld, data this year appears to show a turnaround that has researchers on alert. Compared to a 2022 in which there were hardly any incidents related to irregular immigration involving this type of boat, this year almost 200 boats were involved in the transport of immigrants, according to sources familiar with a phenomenon in the country. that the new arrivals usually come from Morocco.