A TOP judge has slammed Spain’s government over its failure to battle organised crime on the Costa del Sol, warning the area risks becoming the next ‘Acapulco, Marseille or Naples.’
Manuel Garcia-Castellon, who retired in 2024, told Diario SUR that more than 165 criminal gangs are now active on the Costa del Sol, with several groups linked to a string of violent incidents in recent months.
The former National Court judge blamed the Spanish government for the escalation in gangland crime, saying officials were tackling incidents individually instead of taking down increasingly powerful criminal networks.
He added the phenomenon risked hamstringing the Costa del Sol’s vital tourism industry, which employed a record-breaking 150,000 in 2025, according to Andalucian government data.
“Acapulco in Mexico started like this. Marseille in France started like this. In some ways, so did the coast around Naples,” he told Diario SUR.
Garcia-Castellon also warned that police forces on the Costa del Sol were critically understaffed and ill-equipped, urging the government to increase investment to tackle the gangs effectively.
The judge criticised the dismantling of OCON-Sur in 2022, a specialist Guardia Civil unit created to tackle drug trafficking and organised crime across southern Spain.
The 150-strong team coordinated investigations into major drug networks, but its officers were suddenly reassigned elsewhere in 2022.
The government described the move as a reorganisation rather than a dismantling.
Garcia-Castellon’s warning comes after a string of violent incidents rocked Malaga province in recent months and years.
In September, a 47-year-old Turkish man linked to supporters of Istanbul football club Fenerbahce was shot in the face while sitting outside a restaurant at Malaga’s Muelle Uno port.
Spanish media identified the victim as Ümit Yalçin. Investigators considered whether the attack was linked to a feud between criminal groups, although the motive remains unconfirmed.
In August, a suspected settling of scores left three people dead in Isla Cristina, Huelva.
The victims included a pregnant woman, her mother and a 16-year-old boy caught up in the dispute.
The violence has also claimed the lives of four Guardia Civil officers in the line of duty over the past two years.
In February 2024, officers David Perez Carracedo and Miguel Angel Gonzalez were killed when a drug-smuggling speedboat rammed their inflatable patrol boat in Barbate, Cadiz.
In May 2026, two more officers died when Guardia Civil patrol boats collided during a pursuit of a suspected drug-running vessel off Huelva’s coast.
The Guardia Civil union AUGC has spent the past two years calling on the government to provide the force with more officers and resources to tackle organised crime.
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