Drug-trafficking arrests in Andalucia have fallen by 15% since the elite OCON-Sur unit was dismantled, while arrests across the rest of Spain have risen, according to a major Guardia Civil association.
The Unified Association of Guardia Civil Officers (AUGC) has published an analysis of official crime and drugs statistics as it joins growing calls for the specialist anti-narcotics force to be reinstated.
OCON-Sur, a specialist unit made up of around 150 Guardia Civil officers, was created to tackle the powerful trafficking organisations operating across southern Spain.
Before it was dismantled in 2022, its officers had carried out more than 12,000 arrests.
According to the AUGC, drug arrests in Andalucia have since moved sharply against the national trend.
While the number has fallen by around 15% in the southern region, arrests across the rest of Spain have increased by approximately 5.6%.
However, the association stressed that the figures do not prove that abolishing OCON-Sur directly caused the decline.
Instead, it said Andalucia began diverging from the national trend from the same period in which the unit was dissolved, raising questions about whether the region’s investigative capacity has been maintained.
The AUGC is now demanding that Spain’s Interior Ministry publish detailed figures to substantiate its claim that the abolition of OCON-Sur did not weaken the fight against organised drug trafficking.
Cocaine seizures surge while arrests fall
The association’s analysis also highlights what it describes as a striking divergence between arrests and the amount of drugs being intercepted.
According to the AUGC, the quantity of cocaine seized in Andalucia has increased by 108.8% since 2020, while the number of arrests has fallen by 15%.
Although cocaine seizures dropped during 2025, the association argues that this was largely because the previous year represented an exceptional peak.
The latest figure remains 43.7% above the average recorded in 2021 and 2022, it said.
The AUGC said authorities are also continuing to intercept broadly similar quantities across the four main categories of drugs despite making fewer arrests.
It cautioned that the pattern could have more than one explanation: it could indicate a genuine reduction in trafficking activity, but it could also point towards a reduced capacity to identify and arrest those behind it.
Drug routes spreading across Andalucia
The association also believes trafficking routes are shifting geographically as criminal organisations adapt to police pressure.
Cadiz is the only coastal province in the area analysed where drug seizures have not increased, while four neighbouring provinces have absorbed some of the displacement in trafficking activity.
The changing routes are also affecting Cordoba, according to the AUGC, with criminal organisations alternating between beach landings and transportation by lorry to circumvent controls along the coastline.
The findings come amid an intensifying political debate over OCON-Sur.
Andalucian president Juanma Moreno recently wrote to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez demanding the unit’s reinstatement, arguing that organised crime groups have expanded their operations and become increasingly violent.
AUGC demands permanent OCON-Sur
The AUGC is now calling for OCON-Sur to be restored as a permanent, formally structured unit, rather than relying on temporary deployments.
It also wants the Andalucian coastline, Huelva and the Guadalquivir river to receive Zona de Especial Singularidad, or Special Singularity Zone, status in recognition of the exceptional conditions faced by officers fighting organised crime.
Among its other demands are increased permanent staffing, particularly in the Guardia Civil’s Maritime Service; specific additional pay for officers exposed to extreme risk; formal recognition of their work as a high-risk profession; and a multi-year programme to modernise the force’s maritime equipment.
The association wants officers to have access to high-speed interception vessels, ballistic protection and buoyant bulletproof vests, alongside a dedicated budget for maintaining and repairing the fleet.
It is also seeking non-lethal interception equipment, measures to protect officers and their families from being identified or targeted by criminal groups, greater judicial specialisation and more resources for financial investigations and the seizure of assets belonging to trafficking organisations.
Read more Andalucia news at the Spanish Eye.
