Laurence Dollimore
POLICE in Marbella are ramping up reinforcements to tackle the scourge of organised crime this summer, it has been announced.
The Policia Nacional force this week launched its Marbella Plan, which vows to increase numbers across the city’s units.
This includes bringing in more sniffer dogs and increasing the ‘Medios Aereos’ (Air Resources) squad, which is made up of mostly helicopters and drones.
It follows a wave of shootings over the past couple of months, most of them in broad daylight.
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In a bid to decrease such incidents, police will ramp up spot checks on cars between now and October.
They will be setting up a lot more random checkpoints and in many different locations to guarantee the ‘surprise factor’, a spokesperson said.
There will also be many more officers patrolling the streets, acting as a visible deterrent to would be petty thieves.
The movements “of those who make up such networks will also be detected and prevented, seizing effects such as weapons and narcotic substances, or controlling areas considered most sensitive such as leisure areas and residential developments,” said the Provincial Police Station.
“The Marbella Plan will mean, from now until October, a greater uniformed police presence on public roads in the city,” he added.
In March, a man in his 20s was shot in the arm and leg while at a shisha club in the Marbella resort of Puerto Banus.
Just one week prior, two people were shot at in broad daylight near the Puerto Banus bullring.
And in February, a Swedish man was found wounded in the arm and thigh after yet another shooting near Banus.
