Many criminal gangs in too small a space. This is the reason that police specialists attribute to the recent increase in shootings on the Costa del Sol, where conflicts, robberies, and disputes over territory between drug trafficking organizations are constant. In the early hours of Tuesday, the fifth incident involving firearms in less than two months occurred in the district of Nueva Andalucía, in Marbella (Málaga, 150,725 inhabitants). This time it happened in the Los Naranjos urbanization, where a 21-year-old young man was injured after receiving three gunshot wounds. The National Police are investigating the incident while the victim remains hospitalized at the Costa del Sol Hospital. He has three gunshot wounds in both knees and buttocks, according to health sources, which are not serious.
The incident took place shortly after midnight. Several people called the Emergency 112 Andalucía service reporting that they had heard several gunshots. National Police officers arrived at the scene, the Los Naranjos urbanization, so quickly that the shooting was still ongoing. The individuals involved then fled in several vehicles, but the agents found a 21-year-old man who had been shot three times. As part of the evacuation of the wounded man to the hospital, a operation was activated to try to locate the vehicles involved in the incident, which remains under investigation. This is the fifth case where firearms are involved in less than two months in Marbella, all in the district of Nueva Andalucía, in the vicinity of Puerto Banús.
One of them occurred on March 11, and the National Police announced this afternoon the arrest of two individuals for it, both “linked to organized crime,” as clarified by the investigation. These individuals approached a restaurant on a motorcycle around midday and fired at least 15 shots on its terrace, shattering the establishment’s windows but without anyone being injured. It was the passenger who got off the vehicle, approached the restaurant, and fired. He then got back on the motorcycle where the driver was waiting and fled the area. The Organized Crime Group of the Marbella Police Station took charge of the investigation and used the dozens of surveillance cameras in the area to first identify the vehicle and then determine the suspects’ itinerary to find out where they were hiding.
Also in jail are two Swedish nationals who were arrested, along with a third person who was released, for attempting to murder a compatriot. It happened on Yedra Street, also in Nueva Andalucía, when, in the early hours of February 10, a young man got out of a vehicle wearing a ski mask and fired several shots at two Swedish citizens walking along the road. One of them was injured in the leg and arm and had to be hospitalized. A month later, the National Police arrested three of those involved: both the shooter and two accomplices who helped with logistics. Police sources state that these shootings, as well as others, are not related and are a result of the high number of criminal organizations involved in drug trafficking in the area.
The presence of multiple criminal organizations dedicated to drug trafficking in the area turns it into a pressure cooker and generates numerous conflicts, disputes over territory, and theft of merchandise. “There are many organizations in a small space. There are clashes and, sometimes, the balance is broken,” explained a specialized agent last week. Sometimes they are “just fits of rage” in which drug traffickers use firearms more easily. “Not much happens,” another agent sarcastically summarized a few days ago about the situation in Marbella.
