“We are an easy target for drug dealers and gang members”

The threat on the streets is becoming more and more frequent and is transforming into different faces of crime. Drug traffickers mercilessly attack police vehicles trying to track them down. They also do not hesitate to shoot them before being arrested. Sometimes they come to doubt that police officers are police officers and believe that they are. drug dump victims.

While drug traffickers pose a danger, Latino gangs have also targeted National Police officers. An internal communication, to which ABC had access, warns that members of the Dominican Don’t Play (DDP) gang were planning to organize an ambush against the officials.

The hook was going to be a call to 091. A confidant was the one who alerted the officers to what was happening in the underworld of these criminals. The criminal mastermind of this ruse were seven dangerous gang members who were fed up with continued police attacks on their interests.

The continuing reports every week of injured officers in different regions of Spain raise a question: what is happening? “That in most cases it is practically free to attack a national police, because later in court agreements are reached between the prosecution and the parties and many of them are resolved as simple injuries with a ridiculous fine“Ibón Domínguez, spokesperson for Jupol, explains to ABC.

This situation sends a message of “absolute impunity”. Events linked to drug trafficking, such as those experienced in Isla Mayor or Toledo, are “very serious”according to the union representative. “We ask the Ministry of the Interior of Fernando Grande-Marlaska to recognize the problems that currently exist, because otherwise it will be impossible to stop him and he does not admit it,” he affirms.

To remedy this situation, Domínguez proposes a “a legislative tightening”. “There is less and less respect. When an intervention happens, everyone records it and many people who are supposed to be victims even reprimand them and this is the feeling that exists in the street,” he laments.

The United Police Union (SUP) notes that the situation “is getting worse day by day”. “We are an easy target for drug dealers and violent youth gangs. and for any criminal group that knows that the penalties are very, very low, that they can attack, ram vehicles or even shoot a police officer and practically get out the next day,” they say.

The line of work, according to him, should be to toughen sanctions for attack crimes and guarantee greater legal protection for agents. “The police take to the streets without having the certainty that their actions will be supported by the State,” he adds.

“He is afraid of losing his job, of having to choose between saving his life or that of a third party by shooting or ruining his professional career and therefore his personal life. And it’s serious,” he said.

One of the risks they run is that criminal organizations “do not hesitate to shoot at them” with “war munitions” while the agents continue to patrol with insufficient resources. “We cannot continue to face increasingly violent criminals with the same resources as decades ago and with the same staff, because we also need more staff,” he says.

“We cannot ask for results, we cannot ask for efficiency if the workforce is not reinforced. Citizens cannot be protected when the police themselves believe that they are not protected. And here’s the key: if the government doesn’t protect the police, the police can’t protect the public. As simple and as hard as that,” says Pajarón while adding that the loss of the principle of authority “It’s not something symbolichas real, dangerous and irreversible consequences. »

“We cannot allow criminals to set the rules of the game. We need firm laws, adequate resources and absolute institutional support. Before you have to regret something even worse,” he concludes.



“It’s starting to take its toll.”

Another incident that shook the feeling of the Corps was the attack in Alcalá de Henares against two agents identified after a dinner by several criminals. One of the policemen lost several teeth in the savage beatings they suffered.

“It’s quiet and at the same time noisy. He is silent because we don’t notice it, but he is noisy because every time we touch him in the street, it is because of an attack. It’s already starting to be dangerous and it’s starting to take its toll,” defends Carlos Quero, spokesperson for the Federal Police Union (UFP).

The “political lens” is another aspect that increasingly affects those in charge. “Everything is politicized”he adds. “Every use of force becomes ammunition for one another. Now everyone is questioning us,” he warns, while warning that criminals “increasingly” consider themselves to have more “the right to confront and insult officers.”

In 2024 alone, more than 16,800 National Police officers were victims of criminal attacks, the highest number in the entire historical series. The Spanish Police Confederation (CEP) ensures that colleagues have a “terrible feeling of impunity” by criminals. This union even released a documentary on this subject.

“There is no dialogue with the Minister of the Interior, even when police officers are killed in the street. “It does absolutely nothing,” they deplore about this entity. During this time, they obtained a report from European Parliament which corresponds to their requirements: it certified that they lack legal protection and that agents are considered a risky profession.