Ordering a killing on the Costa del Sol may now cost less than a kilo of cocaine, according to sources familiar with the region’s drug trade.

Criminal groups are reportedly paying between €5,000 and €10,000 for contract shootings. By comparison, a kilogram of cocaine can change hands for between €15,000 and €15,500.

While the price depends on the target, the people involved and the circumstances of the attack, investigators believe lethal violence is becoming cheaper and more readily available.

The traditional image of the highly trained and expensive professional hitman is increasingly being replaced by young, inexperienced recruits.

Some are minors, while others are brought to Spain for individual assignments after being contacted through social media or encrypted messaging services.

Earlier this year, the Policia Nacional said they prevented an assassination in Malaga after arresting six people linked to a Swedish mafia.

Two alleged gunmen, one of them a teenager, were intercepted three days after arriving in Spain as they travelled towards the city centre on an electric scooter with their faces concealed.

The apparent fall in price has coincided with an increase in the supply of people willing to carry out such attacks.

Sources experienced in fighting organised crime say shootings are no longer reserved for disputes involving enormous drug shipments or fortunes measured in millions.

Drug thefts, known in Spain as vuelcos, unpaid debts, internal betrayals and personal vendettas can all result in violent retaliation. Even comparatively small quantities of narcotics may now be enough to trigger an armed response.

‘There are people with money who look for someone to take revenge for them,’ one source told Malaga Hoy.

The warning follows a succession of shootings across Malaga province. They include the daylight killing of a man in Marbella, a shooting outside a Fuengirola beach restaurant and the murder of 20-year-old Nacho in Malaga’s Barcenillas neighbourhood.

Police believe Nacho had no criminal connections and was shot after the attackers mistook him for their intended target. Three suspects were later remanded in custody.

Days later, Turkish ultra leader Umit Yalcin, 47, was shot in the face while dining at a restaurant in Malaga’s busy Muelle Uno.

Authorities are investigating that attack as a suspected settling of scores connected to drug trafficking.

Although Interior Ministry figures recorded a fall in completed homicides during the first half of the year, the concentration of shootings over the summer has caused growing concern.

Investigators also believe organised criminals are increasingly using Malaga city as a place to hide among a larger and more anonymous population.

That has brought violence once associated principally with Marbella and other coastal resorts into residential neighbourhoods and heavily visited public spaces.

Criminals are frequently located through friends, dealers or former associates willing to betray them.

Foreign and Spanish groups also share weapons, safe houses, suppliers and distribution networks, making the distinction between imported and homegrown crime increasingly meaningless.

‘They have settled here,’ one source concluded. ‘They are already from here.’