Spanish drug traffickers kill 2 civil guards with speedboat

By Senhan Bolelli

MADRID (AA) - Drug traffickers rammed a high-performance speedboat Friday into a security patrol boat near Barbate Port in Cadiz in southern Spain, killing two civil guards, according to reports.

The Interior Ministry said on the evening of Feb. 9, a patrol boat with six civil guards onboard was capsized and sunk by a high-performance speedboat used by drug traffickers.

It occurred when the civil guards, who noticed six speedboats anchored near the port due to a storm in the region, attempted to approach the boats to conduct identity checks.

One of the speedboats reportedly sped toward the patrol boat and rammed it.

Two of the guards onboard were killed in the collision, while one was seriously injured and another injured.

Footage showed drug traffickers shouting "hit, hit" after ramming the patrol boat.

Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska reportedly traveled to Barbate following the incident.

The Civil Guard Association condemned the attack and said the "drug gang problem is a bleeding wound in the region" and it has long been complaining about inaction in combating the problem.

It urged the Interior Ministry to launch a thorough investigation.

Santiago Abascal, the leader of the far-right Vox party, wrote on X that if people want to prevent Spain from becoming a drug dictatorship like those in Latin America, drug traffickers must be "met with bullets."

A three-day mourning period was declared in Barbate.

*Writing by Alperen Aktas from Istanbul