The Armed Forces will take a step forward in their involvement in the fight against drug trafficking. If until now the military only intervened by order of a judge of the National Court, from now on they will also do so at the request of the Anti-Drug Prosecutor’s Office.
The fact that the Navy could intervene in the framework of an investigation directed by the Public Ministry was one of the demands that the special anti-drug prosecutor, Rosa Ana Morán, publicly raised after the death of two civil guards run over by a drug boat in the port of Barbate (Cáidz), on the 9th. The prosecutor alleged that waiting for the corresponding complaint to be filed and the competent judge in the case to be appointed delays the intervention of the State Security Forces and Bodies.
The matter was addressed by the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, and the anti-drug prosecutor herself on the 16th and both agreed that from now on the Navy will be able to participate in operations against drug trafficking not only when requested by a judge but also by the Prosecutor’s Office. , although in the latter case the request must be reflected in a decree and not processed only verbally. This formality is important to legally support the forces participating in the operation, since the registration of a ship in international waters requires prior authorization from the ship’s captain or its flag country, if there is no mandate to a judicial authority.
In application of the protocol that has been in force since the last decade of the last century, the Navy usually collaborates in the fight against drug trafficking by transporting on board its ships police or customs surveillance personnel who seize large shipments of drugs on the high seas. drugs often coming from Latin America and destined for European or African ports. Until now, the registration of the vessels was carried out by order of the judge of the National Court who directed the investigation through searches of the suspicious vessels at a distance from the coast where, due to lack of autonomy or for technical reasons, the patrol boats cannot operate. the Civil Guard or the vessels of the Customs Surveillance Service.
In any case, the boardings will continue to be carried out, as until now, by members of the State Security Corps and Forces, according to the sources consulted, although the Navy has the means to do so and carries them out within the framework of Operation Atalanta of the European Union against piracy in the Indian Ocean. This support role in the fight against drug trafficking also includes the provision of information collected by the surveillance means of the Armed Forces, especially in the Strait of Gibraltar, and any other specific support that may be requested by the Forces. and State Security Bodies.
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Following the murders of the two agents in Barbate, Robles already recalled that it is “usual” for the Navy to collaborate in operations against drug trafficking “once a judicial authorization is received” and stressed that it always acts “with great prudence and respect.” ”. However, he announced that, “when there is no open judicial procedure, if for some specific tasks, the Ministry of the Interior asks the Navy for help, it knows that it can count on it.” In fact, the demand that the Navy act at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office had been studied before the death of the two agents and was already raised in a meeting with Defense on January 23.
Government sources assure that the fact that the Navy increases its involvement in the fight against drug trafficking mafias does not mean recognizing that the Ministry of the Interior is overwhelmed. Its owner, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, who last week was rejected in the Senate for the events in Barbate, offered in Congress a battery of data to deny the supposed immunity of drug traffickers operating in the Gibraltar countryside. Anti-drug operations, he alleged, have increased from 4,698 in 2022 to 5,439 last year; detainees from 5,827 to 6,144; the means of transport seized, from 1,505 to 1,620; and the tons of drugs seized from 272 to 306.
Vox presented in the Senate a proposal for the Government to declare the fight against drug trafficking as of interest to national security, in application of the National Security Law of 2015, and mobilize the Army. Defense sources recall, however, that the support of the Armed Forces to civil authorities is common and recalled their participation in the security deployment at international events, such as the NATO summit in 2022, or the intervention of the Military Emergency Unit. (UME) in fires and disasters.
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