AS SUNBATHERS stared in dismay and children built sandcastles, brazen smugglers landed their boat on a busy beach near Marbella, unloading their illicit cargo in broad daylight.
The shocking scenes were just a glimpse into Spain’s increasingly volatile drug trafficking trade, where fearless narcos are facing off against police in deadly-high speed chases and dishing out horrifically brutal punishments to those who cross them.
Drug dealers unload an illegal shipment in full view of sunbathers on a beachinstagram
instagramThey then carry huge bags filled with drugs up to a car, which is speedily driven away[/caption]
In another clip, the dealers – known as petaqueros – dance on a shipment that was shared onlineinstagram
The so-called Costa del Crime has long been a haven for fugitive drug lords hiding out from the law, with a recent spate of shootings shining a dark light on the coastline’s gangland scene.
In June, two Scottish mobsters were gunned down at an Irish bar, while last week a Swedish rapper was blasted in broad daylight outside a café in front of horrified tourists.
But with recent figures from the EU Drugs Agency showing that Spain has overtaken Belgium and the Netherlands as the continent’s principal entry point for cocaine, the thriving international trafficking industry is rapidly becoming the local authorities’ biggest concern.
As ruthless cartels seek to feed the ever-growing appetite of European nations like Britain for cocaine, they are employing high-risk and violent new tactics to evade law enforcement.
And, as last month’s shocking viral footage of balaclava-clad beach invaders at Playa Ancha, near Marbella, showed, they pay little attention if innocent holidaymakers get in their way.
While such scenes might concern the thousands of Brits who flock to the popular Costa resorts each year, the UK is not simply an innocent bystander – or indeed customer – in Spain’s drug trade either.
Alberto Morales Plaza, chief commissioner of the Central Narcotics Brigade of Spain’s National Police, says that the UK’s demand for narcotics has led to Brits being prolific in large-scale organised crime in Spain, acting as the country’s trafficking “delegates”.
“It’s a worrying outlook for Europe”, he tells The Sun.
“Europe thinks this is Spain’s problem, but the drugs that enter through here are consumed in Prague, in Stockholm, in Hanover and in London.
“You’ve got to put two and two together, but Spain is abandoned and the narcos are winning.”
Spain has long been a primary gateway for drugs entering Europe, thanks to its regions located on the Atlantic coast and historic cultural and trade links with South America.
It is also the main corridor for hashish, as the mere nine miles separating it from Morocco make it easy for speedboats to race across the Strait of Gibraltar with bales of the Class B drug.
Until recently, cocaine trafficking has been largely concentrated in container ports like Algeciras and Barcelona, with contraband – much of which is bound for the UK – concealed in loads of fruits and vegetables.
But organised crime groups are diversifying their tactics and taking to the open waters off Spain’s southern coast to capitalise on the established hash routes from Africa, and authorities admit they are overwhelmed.
“The dynamic has changed because more cocaine is coming in than hashish and cannabis,” says Lucas Lavilla, a spokesperson for the Unified Association of Civil Guards.
“They are using the infrastructure of hashish trafficking for cocaine, and it’s accounting for a bigger percentage.”
instagramThe thugs, wearing T-shirts as balaclavas, load drugs into a nearby car[/caption]
SolarPixA Swedish rapper was gunned down in a shooting last week[/caption]
Firearms seized as part of a joint Spanish National Police and National Crime Agency (NCA) investigationNational Crime Agency
Spanish police warn the Strait of Gibraltar is becoming a lucrative passage to transport illegal goods
£4.5k ‘drug cans’
This infrastructure is a well-oiled machine.
An attempt by the Spanish government to crack down on smuggling in the Strait of Gibraltar saw a ban on semi-rigid rubber boats – the type traffickers fit with three or four motors for speed – meaning they could never be legally brought ashore to refuel.
The need for these vessels to remain permanently on the high seas has given rise to the rapidly spreading phenomenon of ‘petaqueo’: stockpiling dangerous volumes of fuel to sell to narco boats on the water.
Commissioner Morales tells us: “These boats become stations that are at sea continuously, waiting for their services to be requested. They need supplies, food, water… and a lot of gasoline.”
He says that the smugglers can earn the same for one shipment of cocaine as for four of hashish, leading to an increasingly lucrative trade for fuel dealers.
Spanish newspaper El Mundo reports that a €50 (£44) jerry can now fetch up to €5,000, and with unemployment in southern Spain high, this business is booming.
Until now, we weren’t finding military weapons, that was unusual. Now, it’s the other way around. In almost every raid we do it’s unusual not to find any
Commissioner Morales
A TikTok video that went viral in January showed two of these mask-clad ‘petaqueros’ on their own floating gas station in the Strait, dancing on top of a mountain of fuel flasks while reggaeton music blasted from a portable speaker.
To law enforcement, the impact is clear. The speedboats are travelling further distances and landing in new locations.
Agent Lavilla says: “Even Seville is seeing drug trafficking via the Guadalquivir river now, but before it was unimaginable that a rubber boat would reach it.
“So if you tackle petaqueo, you tackle trafficking.”
But as possession of fuel alone only carries mild penalties, there is not much of a deterrent. Authorities seized over 350,000 litres of fuel in the first half of this year alone.
‘Cop killing & cement torture’
The shift from hashish to Class A drugs has also caused an escalation in the violence of these organised crime gangs.
More valuable cargo means higher stakes and higher risks, with the boats operating a ‘go fast’ method to evade Civil Guard and border control boats that is claiming lives at a disturbing rate.
In February 2024, two Civil Guard officers were brutally killed off the coast of Cadiz when a narco boat ran them over at breakneck speed.
Multiple traffickers and petaqueros have also lost their lives in collisions with law enforcement vessels – six between 2024 and 2025 – most recently on September 20 when a smuggler died in a pursuit near Algeciras.
Agent Lavilla says: “The aggression is radical. They ran our colleagues over with motor launches because they weren’t even scared of the repercussions.”
A shocking case in Cadiz last month illustrates why the smugglers have bigger fears.
A narco gang held a man hostage for three days, forced him to drink cement and funnelled boiling water into his rectum after the stash he was transporting across the Strait disappeared.
One vessel carrying drugs was intercepted by Spanish police
A high-speed chase ended when police managed to block the gang off
Huge stashes are being intercepted in the Strait
“We’ve also noticed a rise in the use of firearms – of weapons of war, ” says Commissioner Morales.
“These shipments are more attractive to other criminal organisations that steal cargo, so traffickers are ramping up their security.
“Until now, we weren’t finding military weapons, that was unusual. Now, it’s the other way around. In almost every raid we do it’s unusual not to find any.”
In footage shared with The Sun, Commissioner Morales’ unit displayed a recent haul of firearms including gold-plated AK-47s and magazines.
“At the moment they have them for protection, but it’s only a matter of time before we have an armed confrontation with them,” he says.
Brit drug kingpins
The UK has the highest rate of cocaine consumption in Europe, and according to the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime, the second-highest in the world after Australia.
Latest estimates from our National Crime Agency (NCA) say that Britain consumes 117 tonnes of the drug annually, with cocaine-related deaths going up by 30 per cent in 2023.
The majority reaches British soil in shipping containers from Antwerp or Rotterdam.
“You pick up a shipment in Malaga and in less than 24 hours you’ve got it in the Netherlands,” says Commissioner Morales.
You’ve got to put two and two together, but Spain is abandoned and the narcos are winning
Agent Lavilla
In 2024, the UK Border Force seized the largest quantity of powder cocaine since its records began, up 75 per cent from the year before.
Commissioner Morales adds: “We have a strong relationship with the UK authorities because traditionally there have been quite a lot of British people involved in this. In Operation Mentor, not long ago, the two main offenders were a British father and son.”
The bust – which dismantled a leading trafficking clan – was a joint effort with the NCA and other international agencies.
So too was Operation Black Shadow, which ended this June with 48 arrests and the seizure of 3,800 kilos of cocaine, plus firearms.
Another cocaine shipment which recently sped across the water from Morocco was taken to a warehouse where it was hidden in boxes of frozen broccoli.
The ‘vegetables’ were destined for Manchester, before Morales’ team and the NCA swooped in on the drugs network and arrested nine British nationals.
The Spanish State Prosecutor’s 2025 report, obtained by The Sun, also indicates the growing involvement of British kingpins, stating that drug-related extradition requests from the UK have increased.
One such case relates to Anthony Finnigan from Liverpool. He was part of an organisation that trafficked Class A drugs from Morocco through Spain and on to Britain’s streets before being caught in Murcia, where shots were fired at officers during his arrest. He was sentenced to six years this summer.
Merseyside PoliceLiverpool drug lord Anthony Finnigan was jailed for six years[/caption]
Ammunition found as part of the joint NCA raidNational Crime Agency
An NCA spokesperson told us: “We focus on tackling drug-smuggling at every stage of the journey: from source, to transit, to destination country.
“Through our International Liaison Officer Network we work with partners in countries where drugs are produced and throughout supply routes to prevent drugs getting in the UK.”
But even with international support on certain operations, authorities in the Strait of Gibraltar say a lack of resources has made Spain’s southern belt a weak link.
“We don’t have the proper means or the necessary force to deal with narco boats,” says Agent Lavilla.
“It’s a combination of circumstances that creates the perfect breeding ground for drug trafficking to grow.”
As the country celebrates its record-breaking cocaine seizures, Agent Lavilla is less optimistic.
He says: “When more is being seized it means more is coming in.”