Spain arrests eight after civil guards die in drug chase

Spain’s civil guard on Saturday announced eight arrests after a drug traffickers’ boat hit a patrol vessel and killed two officers during a chase.

The civil guard arrested three of the boat’s passengers following Friday’s incident in the southern port of Barbate near Cadiz that also saw two officers injured.

Two others who travelled by vehicle to pick up the passengers were also detained, the civil guard said.

Several hours later, the force announced “three other passengers who had fled the boat” were detained.

The AUGC, an association representing the paramilitary police, and Spanish media shared a video showing a night-time chase in the port involving several vessels.

One of the two injured officers remains in hospital but is out of danger, the civil guard added.

Spain’s Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska visited the scene of the incident and called the event an “assassination” and promised “zero impunity” in efforts to stop drug trafficking.

The government of the nearby British enclave of Gibraltar also expressed its condolences for the officers’ deaths.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he “deeply regrets” the deaths, while the country’s royal family said on the same social network that it was “deeply saddened”.

The sea off Cadiz has seen several confrontations and major drug seizures by customs and police.

Spain is a major transit point for narcotics arriving in Europe from North Africa.