Fifth security plan to tackle drug trafficking in Campo

Spain’s Interior Ministry is preparing the next phase of its Special Security Plan for the Campo de Gibraltar.

In its fifth cycle it is set to run from 2026 to 2029.

The plan targets organised criminal networks involved in drug trafficking and smuggling along the southern coast and key inland routes.

The current plan, due to end this December, carries a €200 million budget for 2024–25. The Campo de Gibraltar is a key gateway for drug shipments, with Morocco, the world’s largest exporter of cannabis, just across the Strait.

Across the bay, port of Algeciras, one of Europe’s busiest, recently saw a huge cocaine bust, highlighting its role in drug trafficking into the continent.

In 2024 alone, Spanish police and Guardia Civil officers carried out over 12,000 operations, up 43% from the previous year.

These led to close to 6,000 arrests and the seizure of more than 265,000 kilos of drugs.

Of those operations:

More than 11,000 targeted trafficking and smuggling groups  - up 44.7% from 2023.

And 677 of these, were aimed at money laundering and losgistical networks – up 19% from 2023.

Since the plan began in 2018, there have been more than 34,000 operations in total, over 30,000 focused on trafficking and smuggling, and close to 3 and a half thousand on financial or logistical crime. Police staffing across the affected provinces has risen by 11.8% over that time.

The plan was first introduced following a high-profile incident in 2018, when masked men entered the hospital in La Línea and freed a detained trafficker. It was taken as a sign of how emboldened local gangs had become.

Initially limited to the Campo de Gibraltar area, the plan has since expanded to cover six provinces, Cádiz, Málaga, Huelva, Almería, Granada, and Seville, as operations uncovered links between these areas and trafficking networks based in the Campo.