Laurence Dollimore
UP to 50 people have been raped or sexually assaulted after drink spiking in Granada since 2012, new figures have shown.
The startling statistics mean almost one person has been drugged and assaulted in the city every month over the last five years.
The figure should set off alarm bells for locals and expats around the whole of Spain, as these statistics ONLY represent those who have reported being attacked.
The drug used in most cases, Burundanga, is designed to leave the victim with no memory of the assault or the moments leading up to it.
It means the real number of those attacked is suspected to be very much higher.
Cases prove extremely difficult to prosecute as the victim has little to no memory of the attack, which in turn puts people off coming forward.
The annoucement by the Granada health authorities comes after campaigns by the Olive Press to raise awareness of the epidemic were largely ignored and labelled as ‘sensationalist’.
Last year, British security boss James Hickey warned our readers to be vigilant of a ‘shocking level’ of drink-spiking on the Costa del Sol.
Within just six months of setting up private security firm CP Marbella, he claimed to have heard of at least 15 victims of the crime.
In January of this year, the Costa del Sol Hospital was forced to introduce a new protocol to detect traces of date rape drugs following a spike in reported cases.
The scheme takes blood, hair and urine sample from victims in a bid to detect substances, which cause ‘chemical submissions’.
The drug affects the nervous system and can reduce freewill before knocking the victim out for up to 24 hours.
The Institute of Legal Medicine recently revealed there was a 35% increase in sexual assaults in Malaga city alone last year.
