town Isla Mayor, with a population of 5,781 according to the municipal registry, was back on the front page after a group of drug traffickers opened fire on a National Police team with an AK-47 combat rifle. Who implemented a … A follow-up to an operation to transport narcotic substances resulted in one officer sustaining a gunshot wound to the thigh area, another with two broken ribs as a result of his bulletproof vest being hit, and a third with a fracture in his triceps.
This episode that It means another step on the scale of drug trafficking clan violence in Bajou Guadalquivir. They focused again on this city, where they were arrested in 2016 Half of his position was in the Civil Guard for cooperating with drug trafficking gangs. In 2019, these four agents were sentenced to sentences ranging from four and a half years to 14 years and three months in prison.
Recently, without going any further, several men have been convicted For launching a drug boat in the area known as the Curva del Rincón de Isla Mayoron March 5, 2021.
In such cases, it is not easy to separate the city from drug trafficking activity, even when we are talking about it The first municipality in all of Spain in rice production After 1926, that is, almost a hundred years ago, the mentioned grains began to be cultivated on a large scale in the municipality with the help of the English company Islas del Guadalquivir SA. Isla Mayor is also the center of the red crab fishing and industry in the marshes that extend through the municipal area, an activity that began about 50 years ago.
That was also about four decades ago, according to what some local residents told this newspaper during a visit to the town, when it was introduced into the municipality. Widespread activity related to narcotic smuggling, with increasing intensity in the region as state security forces tighten the siege of the coast of Cádiz Preventing drug boat landings; With the consequent diversion of drug smuggling to the Guadalquivir River towards the interior areas of the region.
Prince of Wales Industrial Estate
Hence, this is indicated by some local voices, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation with bullets and fireThe core of the illicit activity in question may have been concentrated in some warehouses around the Prince of Wales Industrial Estate, where “there are drains connected to the river and this is useful to those in the know”.as explained by a person familiar with the environment.
A visit to the above-mentioned industrial area reflects not only the commercial activity associated with rice cultivation, but also the presence of various medium or small-sized warehouses, andThe state of preservation is sometimes poor and it closes in the middle of the morning on a weekday. From one emerge two young men in their early twenties, taking a brand-new luxury BMW to leave the on-board area, breaking the indifference inspired by the not-quite-work warehouse scene.
Voices consulted by this newspaper have not reached an agreement on the number of warehouses in this industrial area allegedly dedicated to illicit activities, since…There are those who say there will be “six or seven”, and there are those who say there are many more, even 20. At the beginning of 2020, shortly before the outbreak of the epidemic, the Civil Guard was deployed in this polygon Operation Italica, in which 14 ships were closed and 18 people investigated on charges of occupation and irregular construction of ships, as an indirect means of undermining clan logistics From drug trafficking.
Prince of Wales Industrial Estate
“They’ve been there for a while. Many years, but you can’t identify them because it might complicate your life,” one local shrugged: On Isla Mayor “everything is known,” but given the situation, “Who rings the cat’s bell?” “There is a lot of fear because of the impunity of drug traffickers.”Someone else confesses in private. There are even those who mention the surnames of three people who are supposedly connected to the drug world, and later demand that such surnames not be published.
In this context, some Isla Mayor residents consulted by ABC believe that these types of activities can “give a little tolerance in the case of those who have nothing to eat,” but they immediately warn of the implicit temptation in She “prospers very easily” in the drug world and gets “a full night’s worth of a nice car, a chalet in Matalascañas, a swimming pool and farms.” And in Isla Mayor there will be someone who would have played a starring role in such a meteoric career.
The stage is now the Toruño ExpresswayAnd, in more detail, the alignment of the warehouses and lands around which the aforementioned shooting occurred at dawn on Saturday last week, c.With the drug dealers opening fire with at least one AK-47 assault rifle on the three aforementioned members of the Organized Crime Special Response Group (Greece). of the National Police, which was immediately followed by the unleashing of a large-scale deployment with heavily armed agents, drones and a helicopter.
After twice intervening in the above-mentioned vessel alignment with a large number of clients The National Police seized 4.5 tons of hashish and eight luxury cars, some of which were stolen, but did not arrest any of the perpetrators of the aforementioned shooting.
Today there are seven of these warehouses and plots of land, most of them in a very poor state of preservation, being irregular constructions; present Remnants of police seals, and in some cases their interior can be accessed.
The case of a warehouse on the Toruño highway
This would have happened about five or six years ago, according to those who know Isla Mayor, when some people acquired many of these lands to devote to illicit activities. Dr. estimatesTime since Operation Itálica in the Prince of Wales Industrial Estate.
““They sold a lot of farms to chorizo and that’s where the mazes came from.”sums up a resident of the municipality who, of course, asks to remain anonymous. More than one person had realized that things were changing in this area of agricultural warehouses.
“There is more movement at night than during the day.” One person resignedly summarizes how the activities of some of the ships dotting the Toronio Highway have changed, During the working day there is hardly any work or signs of activity in some of these facilities.
In parallel, there are those on Isla Mayor who strongly defend this It is a “working city”, where the majority of the population lives “on rice, red crabs and nurseries”. “There are three or four bad guys, but they make a lot of noise,” several neighbors say.
Regarding the latter, again, people shrug their shoulders. “We can’t get into that, because we work so hard.” “The majority of people in this city work like mules,” various neighbors insist. Pointing as evidence to this is Los Limones, a bar located in the city center, which starts serving coffee “at 4:30” in the morning.For workers in the agricultural and industrial food sectors in the municipality.
The city’s mayor, Juan Molero, speaks in the same vein, who highlighted in an interview with this newspaper that Isla Mayor is a “humble and hardworking city”, determined to strengthen its role. As the first region in Spain in rice production and the second source of red crab in the world, in addition to progress in the field of gastronomic, environmental and landscape tourism.As the Seville gateway to Doñana National Park.
“We are the powerhouse of rice and the red crab sector We have the goal of becoming a tourist destination because of the relationship with Doñana,” confirms the first mayor.
The drug dealer is always “ahead of the curve”
Juan Molero thus highlights that drug trafficking is a problem that goes beyond Isla Mayor It is an issue of European scope, with many countries “trembling” in the face of the problem, with criminals “always three or four steps ahead.” From institutions. As he puts it, drug trafficking is “a very global problem, especially at the European level.”
In this sense, I preferred the word “caution” to “fear.”When determining how local citizens experience this situation, because “everyone wants to live their life and enjoy it the best they can.”
The first mayor also defended that while there is no “obvious” or short-term solution, there are “many dedicated people” in trying to put an end to the drug cycle and its social and economic impact. Yes, he explicitly wanted to give“A wake-up call” because the truth, she warned, is that the security forces and agencies fighting drug trafficking networks do not have enough “technical or legal tools.” To confront increasingly sophisticated and hierarchical criminal groups. “They face a lot of harassment,” he lamented.
He stressed that in light of the human tendency toward “what is easy,” it is necessary for institutions to redouble their efforts in the field of values education. “The idea is that there will be more and more good people, and that we will be heard more than the three or four bad ones.” Sums up the mayor of the island.
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