POLICE at the Gibraltar border town of La Línea de la Concepción were ambushed by drug-smugglers who pelted their patrol cars with molotov cocktails.
Inspectors say that until now, nothing had ever surprised them, not even when a powerful drug baron was broken out of hospital in the province of Cádiz – and it is commonplace for police to get an anonymous tip-off of smuggling which turns out to be a red herring to throw them off the scent of the real cross-border trafficking action.
Additionally, police say they know not to use their cars to block off drug transporters at the border, since they are usually driving top-of-the-range stolen vehicles and will simply barge through them.
An undercover operation set up near the La Atunara area – a notorious smugglers' hotspot - following news of a planned massive delivery of drugs and contraband cigarettes was set up, but officers noticed disturbances in the San Bernardo neighbourhood next door.
Barricades in the Bernabé area had been set fire to.
But when police got near the scene, bricks, flares and molotov cocktails were hurled at their cars by a group of 20 or so individuals who were said to be mostly teenagers.
Back-up was called in, but this did not prevent major vehicle damage and two officers being wounded.
They only managed to arrest one of the gang, a boy of 15, thanks to a blackout caused by the attackers who cut street light wires.
Officers said the molotov cocktails were bottles filled with a treacle-like liquid 'designed to stick to the skin' and which could have caused very serious injuries if they had burst on anyone.
Whilst just over the border in the British enclave of Gibraltar, unemployment is barely 3% and most workers are in well-paid financial services jobs, just a few kilometres away the opposite is true.
Nearly 60% of adults in La Línea below retirement age are unemployed, and of those who are not, the majority commute to work in Gibraltar.
These high jobless figures mean the drug trade has become a form of survival – around 3,000 residents are said to be employed by gangs and actively involved in dealing and smuggling.
Police believe the ambush they suffered may have been revenge for the arrest of powerful drug lord Antonio Tejón Castaña, the leader of a clan of brothers who provided trafficking work to huge numbers of unemployed young adults.
Largely thanks to a lack of police resources meaning the gangs outnumber officers and remain one step ahead of them, the drug trade in La Línea has been escalating for some time and is frequently combined with extreme violence.
Recently, a child died after being hit by a speedboat in the sea of the type used by traffickers, although it was later claimed that the craft was not owned or used by the drug gangs.
Police have compared the drug-related violence to the kale borroka, the riots caused by supporters of the now-defunct Basque terrorist organisation ETA, and also to guerrilla warfare.
Officers' union, the SUP, is clamouring for greater protection and resources after years of inaction, saying their own safety is at risk as the drug industry expands out of control.
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