Politicians in Andalucía, Spain, have launched a political campaign to bring back OCON-Sur, an elite Guardia Civil unit that was disbanded despite having put drug-trafficking gangs in check along the region's coast, as concern grows over rising narco-related violence this summer.
The push follows a letter sent on Sunday by Juanma Moreno, president of the Andalusian regional government known as the Junta de Andalucía, to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, demanding more personnel and equipment to confront the problem.
Calls to reactivate OCON-Sur
Rocio Diaz, the Andalusian regional minister for Housing, Youth and Territorial Planning, said on Sunday that OCON-Sur should never have been dismantled by the central government and argued it should be reactivated. She said Andalucía was living through an escalation of insecurity because of drug trafficking, and that the unit needed to be operative again as soon as possible to give state security forces the response and resources needed to combat trafficking in the region.
OCON-Sur was a specialised Guardia Civil unit focused on intercepting drug shipments along the Andalusian coast before it was disbanded.
Moreno's letter to Sanchez
In his letter to the prime minister, Moreno wrote that the problem was no longer confined to a single area, but that the whole coastline and part of the interior had become targets for drug traffickers. He said the public had grown used to seeing speedboats used for smuggling, known locally as narcolanchas, operating in broad daylight and taking refuge in places such as the bed of the Guadalquivir river.
Moreno's letter referred to deadly shootings last week in the Huelva town of Isla Cristina and in Utrera, in Seville province.
Government pushes back
Pedro Fernandez, the Spanish central government's delegate in Andalucía, accused Moreno of ignorance and disdain toward the work carried out by state security forces against drug trafficking. In a statement, Fernandez stressed the effectiveness of operations by the National Police and the Guardia Civil, and said Moreno was belittling operational decisions taken by both forces, including the restructuring of OCON-Sur.
European Parliament petition
The dispute has now reached the European level. Carmen Crespo, a member of the European Parliament for the European People's Party, said her party had filed a request with the Parliament's Committee on Petitions asking it to examine the situation and impact of drug trafficking on the Andalusian coast, where vessels used for smuggling narcotics have a strong presence.
Speaking to reporters in Almeria, Crespo described an increase in insecurity over the course of the summer, with particular impact in the provinces of Cadiz, Huelva and Almeria, and said her party had asked Brussels to study the issue.
Crespo also backed Moreno's call for the return of special Guardia Civil units such as the now-defunct OCON-Sur to intensify the fight against trafficking networks. She described the Junta's position as coherent and the opposition as absolutely necessary, adding that insecurity was a first-order issue as the political year begins and should also be examined by European institutions.
Socialist criticism
Socialist figures accused the Junta of using the issue to confront the central government. Mario Jimenez, a Socialist member of the Andalusian parliament, said Moreno was forgetting his own responsibilities, which he said were extensive and important in prevention and in tackling the negative consequences of drug trafficking and addiction. Jimenez also called for more prevention efforts aimed at younger people.
