The Andalusian coast is a paradise of golden beaches, with a dark side: there are 113 criminal groups active in drug trafficking and recycling. Thus, behind the unsuspecting tourists, violence and murders follow one another
They call it Costa del Sol, but when the night on Andalusia falls this famous strip of land loved by tourists turns into one of the darkest findings of organized crime. Violence and murders are increasingly subverting the natural order of things, or at least that in our imagination, which would only see golden beaches, luxury resorts and mass tourism.
According to the data released by the Spanish authorities, 11 episodes of blood between Fuengirola, Marbella and other coastal municipalities, with a budget of 5 deaths and 10 injured, occurred only in the first five months of 2025. This is because the Costa del Sol is now “home” for mafias and clans. The police mapped at least 113 criminal groups from over 59 countries. British, Irish, North Africans, Balkan and South Americans compete for the control of drug routes and the recycling of illegal proceeds, thanks to a geographical position all too favorable to drug trafficking: a few marine miles from Morocco – the largest world manufacturer of hashish, with Ceuta and Melilla as its branches – and less than an hour away from Gibraterra, one Cocaine arrival points in Europe through the port of Algeciras.
The first “colonizer” for the illegal affairs of organized crime was none other than Don Raffaele Cutolo, who already in the mid-seventies made a forerunner with a consortium of entrepreneurs-cam -orrists who wished to recycle the illegal proceeds from the drug, investing heavily in the real estate and tourist sector. They became millionaires, and since then the Costa del Sol has remained in the hands of groups of promiscuous investors, while criminal tricks has populated the entire south of Spain.
The results were not long in coming: in addition to the Italian Camorra, Today they command the Russian mafia and the so-called “Mocro Maffia” of Dutch-Marocchina origin. Therefore, behind the postcard of the Andalusian tourist paradise, there is a much more march reality: the organized crime of the entire western Europe has rooted and proliferate. Hence the inevitable trail of violence, which pushed the authorities to counter crime with new and more effective tools: such as the so -called Marbella plan, aimed at financed the contrast of transnational crime, and with the fixed presence of specialized police bodies such as the Unidad de intervents Policial (UIP) and the Unidades de Policía Regional (UPR).
The work for these units is not lacking: the last fact of blood occurred only on May 31, when a man with a covered faces killed two well -known exponents of Scottish crime inside the Fuengirola Monaghans Bar (Malaga). It was Ross Monaghan, 43 years old, and Eddie Lyons Jr., 46 years old, prominent figures of the Lyons clan. The two were implicated in the long and bloody feud with the Rivale dei Daniel group (conflict that has dragged on for over twenty years), which has seen a series of armed attacks, shootings and malicious fires directly connected to as many episodes-photocopy reported in the cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh.
“The level of organized crime has increased alarmingly,” certified the anti -drug prosecutor of Malaga, Fernando Bentabol, in an interview on the Radio Cadena Ser. “I don’t remember such an explosive situation in terms of violence and destructive potential,” he commented in relation to the numbers. The Fuengirola shooting, therefore, is only the spy of a widespread yet submerged problem. If, in fact, in Marbella, the heart of the Costa del Sol, the data show a decrease in common crimes, there is a dizzying surge in digital crimes (+95 percent in a year) and the events of blood related to organized crime. For this reason, the same mayor Ángeles Muñoz asked for an increase in state resources, underlining how the criminal pressure exceeds the response capabilities of the local law enforcement agencies.
In 2024, only the province of Malaga recorded 20 murders related to crime: an increase of 46.7 percent compared to the previous year. They could have been many more: the stems and attempted murderers rose to 64, with an increase of 14.5 percent. To curb this drift, the Spanish government intervened directly, announcing the imminent enhancement of surveillance and intelligence systems, and requesting greater international cooperation, in particular with Europol and the anti -drug agencies of the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and France. Because, as mentioned, the Andalusian problem is not in micro crime. “The Costa del Sol has become the playing ground of the new European mafias,” he sentenced El Paísdenouncing the growing use of assault rifles, drones and even launchers, in some documented episodes.
But who is the head of everything? According to the investigators, the Costa del Sol has been the criminal back of the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta. Behind the sparkling windows of Marbella, Fuengirola and Malaga, there is a submerged universe made of cocaine with tons and dangerous relationships, but above all of opaque investments. Several European investigations have revealed that the ‘Ndrangheta finds a perfect context in the coastal region of Spain to convert dirty money into legal capital. The real estate sector, moreover, has always been the favorite vehicle of recycling: luxury villas, tourist apartments and restaurants are thus detected with funds from the drug trafficking, cleaned through companies of convenience, local figureheads and offshore bank accounts. An even more effective mechanism thanks to the poor traceability of real estate transactions and by an easily circumvented bureaucracy.
But the Costa del Sol is not a good investment only for the Calabrian bosses: it is also a joint for the import of cocaine. Spanish ports – from Algeciras to Malaga – are entrance points for loads from South America’s white powder. The ‘Ndrangheta, thanks to its international network, manages directly or in sharing with other groups – Albanians and Kosovar above all – the supply of drugs with destination Europe. A permanent phenomenon: it is no coincidence that in recent years numerous’ prominent ndranghetists have been arrested in Andalusia. Like Mario Palamara, superlating from Africo (RC) as well as among the major cocaine brokers in Europe. Or like Cosimo Piscioneri, son of the boss Rocco, who followed the footsteps of his father arrested in 2014 in Torremolinos, near Malaga. The list is long, and intended for updates.
