AROUND 250 police officers have raided a central Malaga neighbourhood in an attempt to halt a violent gang feud linked to government-subsidised ‘narco-flats’.
At 6am on 28 April, police officers stormed 21 properties in Malaga’s La Trinidad neighbourhood as part of Operation Corralones.
Police claim the raids have ‘dismantled’ two gangs who have been locked in a brutal feud.
The operation targetted so-called ‘narco-flats’ – public housing which serves as drug dens and weapons storage for the city’s gangs.
Gang members allegedly squat in public housing and take control of it, subletting it for profit or using it as headquarters for criminal operations.
Policia Nacional officers seized 800 grams of hashish, 600 grams of cocaine as well as 71 grams of marijuana.
Approximately €20,000 and €1,400 of counterfeit cash was also discovered.
Police discovered an arsenal of weapons including a Scorpion model submachine gun and bulletproof vests.
Ten women and 14 men were arrested and will be brought before a judge in the coming days.
Four housing units illegally controlled by the two warring gangs have been recovered and returned to the Andalusian Housing and Rehabilitation Agency (AVRA).
The raids followed a series of four shootouts in just two weeks in the area.
Gunshots were reported in La Trinidad on 12, 16, 17 and 26 April, with no fatalities or identified suspects, leaving residents on edge.
Rival gangs have reportedly been feuding in an attempt to establish control of La Trinidad and a monopoly over the neighbourhood’s drug trade.
Malaga’s Police Commissioner Rafael Rodriguez confirmed that the operation was due to ‘armed clashes between two family gangs based in the La Trinidad neighborhood’.
Their ‘dispute is nothing more than control of drug-selling areas, or street-level drug dealing,’ he added.
Javier Salas, the government’s representative in Malaga, said that the operation has ‘dealt a severe blow to drug trafficking in the area’.
He continued, ‘the residents of La Trinidad sleep more peacefully because they know that police action will always protect them’.
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