lists, stages and boats controlled

Today, one of his key men faces a request for six years in prison in Spain. The case, which has now reached the oral trial phase, makes it possible to precisely reconstruct the functioning of the mafias on the Canary Islands route, the most dangerous for Europe, and to dismantle the idea of ​​improvisation or spontaneous despair: here there was structure, hierarchy and conscious acceptance of mortal risk.

The investigations of UCRIF In Las Palmas, they identified a stable criminal organization, based on the southern coasts of Morocco and with branches in towns like Tan Tan or El Aaiún.

These were not occasional leaders, but rather a network with defined leadership, a distribution of functions and the logistical capacity to organize outings on an ongoing basis.

At the top was K.D.Senegalese citizen, known as Pa Gambia. According to the prosecution, he was responsible for ensure that ships leave without being intercepted by the Moroccan police or navy, a key element on a route where surveillance originally intensified in recent years.

Under his orders operated a group of collaborators – also sub-Saharan – who carried out the decisions: they recruited the migrants, collected the money, drew up the lists, controlled the accommodation and organized the final transfers to the coast.

The “quiet” ones

One of the less visible, but central, gears of the system was the so-called “silent” one.. This is the name of the buildings where migrants were housed while waiting for their turn to board.

On the floors controlled by the organization, where people were detained for days or weeks, payments were verified and final lists were closed.

From there, the groups were taken first to the desert and then to the beach. The prosecution describes this passage through remote areas as a preliminary logistics phasedesigned to avoid checks and prepare for final shipment. It was then that the equipment was delivered: tires, engines, cans of gasoline.

All this with a clear understanding of the risk. It was not a calculation error: It was part of the business model..

The prosecution attributes to this network the organization of at least four key vessels between August and October 2022. The deadliest sailed from Tan Tan on August 10 with 61 people on board. Shipwrecked in the Atlantic. There were no survivors.

He September 19another inflatable was rescued near Fuerteventura with 58 people. The main accused in this case was traveling on board. He October 1a third ship, detected by the ship Japan in bulkwent out with 34 people: only one survived; Four bodies were found inside.

In addition to these deaths, a fourth boat arrived in Gran Canaria, in which a woman died and which resulted in a final conviction in a parallel procedure. In total: 96 deceased directly linked to outings organized by the same criminal structure.

From migrant to key element

The main accused, SC, is an example of a figure increasingly present in migratory networks: the rising migrant within the organization. He became just another immigrant, but he ended up being integrated into the operational core. According to the prosecution, he drew up the boarding lists, collected the money, checked the migrants on the floors and accompanied them to the exit points.

Although he did not directly pilot the boat with which he arrived in the Canary Islands, he traveled with the skippers and maintained constant communication with the networksignaling the position of the boat on the high seas. A role which dismantles the classic defense of “more transient” and which reinforces the thesis of paternity.

The writing is clear on one key point: SC knew that the means used endangered the lives and physical integrity of people and that his activity facilitated illegal entry into Europe.

A deadly border

This case is not an exception, but an x-ray. The Atlantic route to the Canary Islands has established itself as the deadliest on the continent. The distances, the precariousness of the boats and the absence of emergency means nearby make any failure an almost certain doom.

Many boats never arrive. They do not appear in the archives. There is no help or body. Just silence. The case against the network Pa Gambia allows, for the first time in a long time, put numbers, names and criminal responsibilities to some of these invisible deaths.

The trial will take place before the Las Palmas Provincial Court. He will not judge a failed trip, but a system. The one that transformed the Atlantic into a tomb and that, for months, operated with the certainty that many would not arrive alive.