SEVEN Georgian nationals have been remanded in prison after police found a torture chamber after a tip-off from a victim’s girlfriend.
A phone call from a worried girlfriend led police to a house in Estepona where two men were being held and tortured in a room lined with plastic sheeting.
The raid took place on September 5, but details have only now emerged, after newspaper El Español confirmed the raid.
According to sources close to the court investigation, one of the victims, a Moroccan man, told his partner he was going to a house for a work meeting.
He asked her to call the Policia Nacional if she hadn’t heard from him within 20 minutes.
After 40 minutes without news, she phoned 091 to report that she feared something had happened to him.
A patrol car was sent to the property. When nobody answered, two officers climbed over the fence, fearing that someone’s life was in danger.
As they did so, a naked man covered in blood ran out of the house shouting that the people inside wanted to kill them. He was later identified as the Moroccan man whose partner had raised the alarm.
The officers called for backup and went into the house. Inside they found a room with plastic sheeting covering the floor and walls, and tools including pliers and hammers.
A second man, a Spanish national, was tied to a chair. He was naked and bleeding.
Investigators believe the plastic was used to stop the victims’ blood from leaving any trace. According to sources, the sheeting would normally be collected and burned afterwards, so forensic officers would find no biological evidence on the floors or walls.
Officers at the scene summoned every available unit in Estepona and Malaga. Seven men were arrested at the scene.
During the search, officers seized two AK-47 assault rifles and several pistols.
Investigators suspect the torture was a drug-related settling of scores. Possible motives include a failed job, a stolen drug shipment, or money owed to the gang, though this has not been confirmed and the investigation is ongoing.
Spanish authorities have not ruled out asking Interpol for help in tracking down the remaining gang members.
The case comes three years after a similar incident nearby. In March 2023, police arrested 15 people over the kidnapping and torture of four men in Marbella. One of the victims nearly died after going into a diabetic coma.
The captors reportedly blamed the men for the theft of 1,500 kilos of hashish.
The case comes a month after six men were jailed over the kidnap and torture of a young Dutch man in Fuengirola.
The victim, who was in his mid-twenties, had worked for a cocaine-trafficking network operating between the Netherlands and Malaga province.
He was suspected of helping steal one of its drug shipments and was being pursued over a debt of more than €3 million.
Three men were sentenced to nine and a half years each for unlawful detention, organised crime membership, causing injury and robbery with violence.
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