Police reinforcements are being sent to Malaga after two shootings in five days left one innocent young man dead and another victim seriously injured.
The additional Policia Nacional officers will be drafted into the provincial capital from elsewhere in Malaga and other parts of Andalucia.
The measure was announced on Wednesday morning, hours after a 47-year-old man was shot in the face while dining outside a restaurant at Muelle Uno.
Government subdelegate Javier Salas did not reveal how many additional officers would be deployed or how long the operation would last.
He said the Plan Costa del Sol would be reinforced in Malaga city ‘with more officers and a greater police presence over the coming days’.
Salas insisted that Malaga remained ‘a safe province’, adding that the deployment was intended to improve the public’s ‘subjective feeling of safety’.
‘We will continue working so that crime-clearance rates are almost 100% and so that the crime rate continues to fall,’ he said.
Two shootings in five days
The reinforcements follow two shootings in parts of Malaga that are not usually associated with gang violence.
The first took place shortly before midday last Friday in a square in the Barcenillas area of the La Victoria district.
Nacho, a 20-year-old construction worker, was sitting on a bench near his home when three men approached and opened fire.
He was struck in the back and leg but managed to stagger to a nearby supermarket, where he reportedly told witnesses that he did not know why he had been shot.
Nacho was taken to hospital but died from his injuries later that evening.
Police have since established that he had no criminal record and no connection to drug trafficking or organised crime.
Investigators believe his alleged killers – three Swedish men reportedly linked to the criminal underworld in Malmo – mistook him for somebody else.
All three suspects were arrested on the day of the shooting and have been remanded in custody without bail.
Salas described the killing as ‘regrettable and cruel’ and expressed his condolences to Nacho’s family.
He also defended the police response as ‘rapid and effective’.
‘In the past three years, 100% of incidents involving firearms have been solved by the Policia Nacional,’ he claimed. ‘That does not happen anywhere else in the world.’
Suspected gangland attack at Muelle Uno
The second shooting happened at around 10.30pm on Tuesday in the restaurant area of Muelle Uno, one of Malaga’s busiest tourist attractions.
A 47-year-old man was shot in the face while dining outside a restaurant.
He was rushed to Malaga’s Regional Hospital in a serious condition, although authorities have since confirmed that his life is no longer believed to be in danger.
Witnesses reported seeing two men enter the commercial area before the shooting, although police have not confirmed how many people participated in the attack.
The gunman fled on foot and remained at large on Wednesday.
Salas said all lines of inquiry remained open but that the evidence currently pointed towards a settling of scores between gangs linked to drug trafficking.
There is no indication that the two shootings are directly connected.
Political row erupts
The attacks have nevertheless reignited a political battle over organised crime and policing in Andalucia.
Antonio Sanz, the Junta’s first vice-president, branded Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska the minister of ‘public insecurity’.
Vox MP Patricia Rueda accused Marlaska of turning the Costa del Sol into the ‘Costa of shootings’ and called for his resignation.
The Junta has repeatedly demanded the restoration of OCON-Sur, the Guardia Civil’s specialist anti-drug trafficking unit, which was disbanded in 2022.
Regional president Juanma Moreno renewed that request in August following the fatal shooting of a man whose body was found on a street in Marbella.
Spain’s central government has rejected accusations that it is failing to confront the criminal organisations operating along the Andalucian coast.
