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ISSUE NO. 1728
16 - 22 August 2018
Newspaper in Spain 2017 & 2018
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Back up By Joe Gerrard REINFORCEMENTS from Guardia Civil forces across Spain have been arriving in Algeciras to bolster local efforts to deal with rising crime and general activity in the Campo Gibraltar area this summer. A total of 56 officers arrived in the town on Monday. They came from the Guardia Civil’s maritime, tax, environment, civil protection and judicial units. Officers have begun gearing up for Operations Crossing the Strait and Summer
which aim to manage increasing traffic to and from Morocco and rising numbers of tourists from elsewhere. The reinforcements also come as authorities pledged to tackle rising cases of drugs being trafficked across the Strait of Gibraltar. The Algeciras Guardia Civil currently has a total of 162 officers on hand for operations across the Campo Gibraltar. They have been supplied with bulletproof vests and have been armed with customised weapons, the first
force in Spain to have the latter. Police sources said the number of reinforcements was exceptional for this time of year. Alfonso Rodriguez Gomez de Celis, the Spanish government’s representative in Andalucia, said the reinforcements were part of “necessary measures” to tackle crimes such as drug trafficking. The official added around €7 million in funding had been made available for both technical and human resources.
MORE POLICE: Reinforcements arrived last Monday. Celis denied claims made by some critics of the Guardia Civil that the ongoing migration situation was leading to drugs trafficking cases being ignored. “Not a single investigation into drug trafficking has been affected by migration,” the official said. The reinforcements come as police officers gathered in La Linea de la Concep-
cion to demonstrate in solidarity with colleagues working on drugs cases and to demand wage increases.