The Civil Guard has arrested ten people from a criminal organization whose members shot at a patrol boat off the coast of Huelva this Tuesday during a chase at sea. A vessel from the Customs Surveillance Service was following the trail of a drug-running speedboat when the criminals on board opened fire. The agents responded — injuring one of the traffickers — but ultimately failed to intercept them. Now, thanks to an operation deployed afterward, they have dismantled the gang, seizing six tons of hashish.
The shooting occurred during the early hours from Monday to Tuesday this week. The customs team then began pursuing a rigid inflatable boat that was allegedly trafficking drugs. The occupants of the rigid inflatable fled, performing numerous evasive maneuvers “of extreme danger,” according to the Civil Guard, “putting the agents’ lives at serious risk.” They also threw some of the bundles they were carrying into the sea to hinder the agents’ navigation. Later, they opened fire on them. In response, the guards also fired at the traffickers and injured one of them. The patrol boat eventually suffered a breakdown and was forced to abandon the chase. The criminals managed to escape and shortly afterward left their wounded companion on a beach on the Cádiz coast, from where he was taken to the Puerto Real hospital.
The Civil Guard command in Huelva launched an operation the following morning aimed at locating the drug-running speedboat and arresting its crew. Once they located the boat, on Thursday they boarded it in an operation that also allowed them to seize a second vessel providing support from offshore. As a result, nine people were arrested and nearly six tons of hashish were confiscated. The tenth person, who had been shot and abandoned by his companions on the Cádiz coast, was also arrested. The investigation remains open to clarify the responsibilities of each member of the organization and their involvement in the attack on the agents.
“Extreme violence”
Drug trafficking activity in Huelva is increasing, as shown by data from the Intelligence Center against Terrorism and Organized Crime (CITCO). These show that hashish seizures in the province doubled to 43 tons during 2025. This is also evident from the increase in attacks suffered by security forces. In fact, just three months ago, two Civil Guards died when two vessels from the Maritime Service of the Huelva Command collided while pursuing another drug-running speedboat. This happened in early May. The Unified Association of Civil Guards (AUGC) then issued a statement criticizing the Ministry of the Interior, accusing it of ignoring “the warnings” they had about the risk to agents in their fight against drug trafficking. A few weeks later, in June, another group of traffickers fired long guns at the Civil Guard during a foiled hashish unloading in the Punta Umbría estuary on the Huelva coast, although no one was injured.
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Then, the AUGC spokesperson in Huelva, Lucas Lavilla, reiterated the “risk” situation faced by agents due to the “extreme violence” exercised by drug traffickers, who increasingly have access to firearms, from pistols to war rifles. On most occasions, according to police sources, they use them to defend themselves from rival groups and prevent possible drug thefts, known as vuelcos; but other times they also use them against security forces.
The situation extends to the rest of Andalusia, where incidents with criminal organizations occur periodically. Also this past May, the patrol boat Audaz from the Customs Surveillance Service was hit by a rigid inflatable during a chase of a boat loaded with fuel cans off the coast of Almería. Shortly before, in November 2025, a 45-year-old National Police investigator was seriously injured after being shot several times with a long gun — which pierced his bulletproof vest — during an operation against drug trafficking in Isla Mayor (Seville). The agent is a member of the Special Response Group for Organized Crime (Greco) in Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz), specialized in combating organized crime. In the Cádiz province, in fact, one of the darkest recent episodes in the fight against drug trafficking occurred when two Civil Guard agents died and four others were injured after a drug-running speedboat rammed a zodiac of the Armed Institute in the port of Barbate. After their arrest, those responsible will be tried by a popular jury.
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