THIS is the moment an Andalucian mayor pleaded for government help as brazen ‘nacro-boats’ were caught on camera idling off Spanish shores in broad daylight – just metres from where he stood.
Shocking video depicts two speedboats floating undisturbed off the coast of Pulpi, in northern Almeria province, as the town’s mayor Juan Pedro Garcia Perez speaks to camera from a nearby cliff overlooking the scene.
Drug traffickers and human smugglers have been spotted operating along Andalucian coasts increasingly often in the past two months, with local authorities forced to watch helplessly due to what they have denounced as a shocking ‘lack of manpower and equipment’ to fight back.
“In Pulpi we are sick and tired of asking the government to improve our situation,” Garcia Perez said. “The Guardia Civil are doing great work, but they do not have the manpower.”
“Without the manpower, there is nothing they can do,” he added. “We need more men and we need to change our laws, because we want to feel safer.”
Garcia Perez’s appeal was the latest in a flurry of desperate calls from Andalucian authorities as criminal gangs appear to have ramped up operations across southern Spain in recent weeks.
On Sunday morning, five narco-boats (pictured below) dropped anchor off Cadiz while seeking shelter from a violent sea storm.
The men on board can be seen wearing balaclavas to avoid identification from law enforcement.
Earlier on Friday, a similar scene unfolded in Barbate, west of Gibraltar, as the Guardia Civil reiterated calls for government support.
In both instances, law enforcement was unable to chase off the gangs due to a lack of personnel, according to reports.
A spokesperson for the Guardia Civil trade union, the AUGC, said: “These are scenes of shame and infamy. The State helpless to act. [This is] narco territory now.”
“Political leaders and police commanders are absent,” the spokesperson added. “They are failing to assume their responsibilities, concerned only with the next rung they must climb.”
In one of the most shocking developments in recent weeks, a man drowned in early January after human smugglers forced dozens of migrants to swim to Andalucian shores at gunpoint near Aguamarga, in Almeria province.
Earlier still, in December, a high-speed drug boat repeatedly attempted to evade Guardia Civil maritime units off the Almeria coast, carrying out a series of dangerous manoeuvres during a tense pursuit.
After that incident, Jose Francisco Garrido, the mayor of Nijar in Almeria province, urged the central government in September to “do its job, increase the number of Guardia Civil officers, provide them with the necessary resources and operational protocols to tackle these criminal networks, and finally start taking Nijar seriously.”
He said: “I have been mayor of Nijar for just over two years, and from day one I have been calling on the Spanish government – which is responsible for dealing with this issue – to put an end to the problem.”
“But unfortunately, Pedro Sanchez’s government cannot, or will not, put a stop to the criminal gangs that roam our beaches on a daily basis – gangs that traffic drugs and human beings and fuel large-scale illegal immigration,” he added.
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