Spanish police are struggling to contain extremely organized crime networks in the narco-hub town of La Línea, just north of the Spain-Gibraltar border.
A Spanish coastal town of under 65,000 people is the entry point for 80 per cent of the hashish resin consumed annually by Europe, claims a report by northern Spanish daily La Voz de Galicia.
At least 280,000 tonnes of hashish arrive via La Línea de la Concepción, known simply as La Línea, every month, according to one anti-narcotics officer interviewed for the report.
The officer estimates that smugglers drop off 2,000 kilograms of hashish seven times per night, 20 days per month.
According to the paper’s sources at the Guardia Civil, the police are able to recover just under four per cent of the estimated total import volume of the illegal drug.
Around 3,000 people from 600 families work for 30 or so clans in six districts of the town of La Línea, directly north of Gibraltar, according to a La Voz de Galicia graphic.
Local residents say the are scared to enter certain districts. In February 2018, an alleged clan boss was broken out of hospital by armed men and ferried to Morocco for treatment after being injured in a chase with police. The man’s bodyguards allegedly intimidated local police officers who were guarding the suspect, reports the daily.
