THE Civil Guard loses patience in the capture operation Karim GabardéThe Moroccan drug trafficker who drove the motorboat that destroyed the Zodiac Benemérita in the port of Barbate (Cadiz) last February. Two officers of the force died. Gabarde is perfectly located in a small coastal town, where the police officers found him. UCO. However, and although Morocco has already communicated his fate, Rabat responds that it does not know where he is exactly. The Civil Guard already assumes that there are many options for him not to be captured, partly due to the family ties that serve as his protection in Morocco: his uncle is a drug trafficker with good relations in Rabat and loyal to the regime Mohamed VI.
Police sources with expertise in hashish trafficking explain that there is something in Morocco three golden rules to devote oneself to this lucrative trade and not jeopardize operations, at least from this shore of the Mediterranean: not to get involved in domestic politics, to avoid any problems with the gendarmerie and to show absolute loyalty to the Crown. A few rules strictly respected Abdellah El Merabetone of the main hashish bosses living halfway between Morocco and the Costa del Sol, leader of the group known as Pus Pus. A clan with good connections in Rabat.
As long as these conditions are met, Morocco “treat well” to their people, they explain. And that is the layer of protection that falls to Karim Gabarde, the drug trafficker who piloted the powerful boat that hit and threw into the water David Perez And Miguel Angel Gonzalez, two Civil Guard agents who, on the orders of a superior, had gone to the waters of Barbate, with other colleagues, to expel a group of drug boats. Gabarde is the nephew of El Merabet, which makes him, according to Civil Guard sources, a “practically untouchable” guy.
According to sources from the Civil Guard involved in this investigation, it was agents of the force who were able to locate Gabarde in the Moroccan city of Dalia. They achieved this, they say, without any collaboration on the part of the Moroccan Gendarmerie. There he lives as a fugitive, in full view of the entire city… and the authorities. That same summer, he could be seen enjoying a day at sea on a pleasure boat.
As sources from the Civil Guard explain to OKDIARIO, all attempts to obtain the collaboration of the Moroccan Gendarmerie in this case have been in vain. There is no police assistance, there are good words and promises, but no progress. “The gendarmerie says it knows nothing about him,” they say. And there have been contacts at the highest political level, as has been the case with the agents of the Judicial Police of the Command of Cadiz who are investigating the case with colleagues from the UCO specialized in hashish mafias.
For this reason, they explain, the hope that he will be arrested and handed over to Spain, to be tried for murder charges and attacks on authority – there have been more seriously injured officers – are less and less numerous. The Civil Guard suspects that the good relations in Rabat will allow an escape in time. A advice This frees him from a sentence that would likely last decades.
Flight and refuge
When he fled, sources from the Civil Guard point out, Karim Gabarde and his group – three other people, including two Spaniards – are suspected of having already received support on Moroccan territory. Their boat, for example, was allegedly dismantled the same night, when they learned the news of the death of the two agents and the arrest of the – false – alleged perpetrators.
However, the false trail of the people detained at Sotogrande This caused investigators to lose crucial time in locating Gabarde. It took time to disappear from the face of the Earth. It was Mustafá, one of the drug traffickers who testified at the Barbate trial, who put the agents on the trail of a certain “Karim”. The confusion was such in those early days, say sources in the investigation, that the Civil Guard managed to identify another Karim, arrested shortly after Barbateas a possible author. But this hypothesis was eventually ruled out and an investigation was opened on the other side of the strait which, to date, has not yet resulted in his arrest.
A key agreement
The government of Pedro Sanchez has an asset to speed up the capture of these Moroccan fugitives. This tool is included in a police agreement signed by the two countries in 2019. However, and although this line of investigation has been suspected for weeks, “the agreement has not yet been activated.”
The Sánchez government has thus chosen not to put pressure on Morocco by demanding compliance with the “Agreement between the Kingdom of Spain and the Kingdom of Morocco on cooperation in matters of security and the fight against crime”, signed in 2019 by the minister. Fernando Grande-Marlaska and his Moroccan counterpart, Abdelouafi Laftit.
In its Article 2, Spain and Morocco commit to “the exchange of information and the provision of assistance in the operational investigation activity” in a series of specific aspects of the fight against crime, such as “the investigation and search for persons who have committed or are suspected of having committed crimes in the territory of one of the Parties” and the “search in the territory of one of the Parties for objects, effects or instruments derived from the crime or used in its commission at the request of the other Party”. That is, the real murderers of Barbate and the drug boat they used, which at this stage is considered “dismantled” and cleaned of all evidence.
