Andalusia, this time its waters of Huelva, has once again been the scene of a tragedy that strikes the Civil Guard. On the day the institution celebrated the largest cocaine seizure so far in the world, two of its men, a captain and a civil guard, aged 54 and 55, died when their Maritime Service vessels, the patrol boat Rio Antas and a rigid inflatable boat of the corps in which the two deceased were traveling, collided while trying to cut off the passage of a drug-running boat. The rigid inflatable boat is 12 meters long and has three engines, similar in structure but much larger and faster than the zodiac run over by a drug-running boat in Barbate in February 2024, in which two civil guards died.
Two other officers who were on the vessel that was worse off are hospitalized, only one of them has serious injuries. The accident occurred around eleven in the morning on Friday and as the information was confirmed, it was followed by the immediate reaction of the main political parties converging in the regional elections on May 17. The candidates expressed their deep sorrow for what happened and practically all parties suspended the campaign events on Friday and those scheduled for Saturday – except Vox – and committed to attending the funeral in which two civil guards especially loved in the area will be honored. The Andalusian Government has decreed a day of official mourning.
The captain, the civil guard, and the two injured were on the rigid inflatable boat that was rammed by the patrol boat
The incident occurred about 80 nautical miles, about 150 kilometers, from the coast of Huelva, between Punta Umbría and Mazagón, and not too far from Morocco, about 90 kilometers, or 47 miles. For the civil guards, who on this Friday mourned with great pain the death of their two colleagues, it was no coincidence that the accident occurred in these waters. Huelva has recently become the new zero zone of action for drug clans that have turned the Strait of Gibraltar and the mouth of the Guadalquivir in Huelva into extremely dangerous scenes for civil guards, who, they insist, work at a disadvantage.
The deceased yesterday are agent Germán P. J., born in Teruel, and captain Jerónimo J. M., from Villanueva del Rosario, in Málaga. Both had great experience in the Maritime Service. The captain also worked for a few years in the Civil Guard’s communication office in Málaga and due to his especially affable character and charisma, he was very well known and appreciated. Both had a large number of congratulations and distinctions for their work. The civil guard was a veteran of the Maritime Service, where he had served for 34 years, during which he witnessed the increasingly disturbing power of drug clans and the unequal fight led by the agents. The drug-running boat that the two Civil Guard vessels were chasing yesterday was 14 meters long and had four engines.
Most parties cancel election campaign events and their leaders will attend the funeral today
The Unified Association of Civil Guards (AUGC) has expressed its deepest condolences to the families of the deceased and was quick to show the feelings of many guards. “This is not an unforeseen accident. It is the consequence of a documented, analyzed risk situation formally reported to the Administration,” they said in a statement.
The professional association Justice Civil Guard (Jucil) also lamented the death of their colleagues and emphasized that this tragedy “is not an isolated or unforeseeable case.” They also warned about the lack of resources for “those who fight drug trafficking on the ground.” Other associations expressed similar sentiments, such as Independents of the Civil Guard (IGC), who stressed that “it is time to value the work of those on the front line.” “The fight against drug trafficking on our coasts is an unequal and dangerous battle, where men like Germán and Jerónimo give their own lives,” they defended. The minority Pro Civil Guard Association (Aprogc) called the working conditions in Andalusia “regrettable” and emphasized the need for them to be recognized as a high-risk profession.
The tragedy strikes an organization that lost two other guards in Barbate in February 2024
All criticisms arose in the face of the silence of the Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, who did not react in person, but the ministry did so through its profile on X, where they lamented the loss of the two agents and the speedy recovery of the two injured.
The circumstances in Barbate were different from those that occurred this Friday in Huelva. On that occasion, the guards were practically forced to chase a drug-running boat that had been sheltered in the port for several days. After a chase in a small zodiac, cheered on by many neighbors from the promenade, the drug traffickers rammed the guards’ boat and two of them lost their lives.
The armed forces’ unions warn of the “unequal fight” against drug traffickers in Andalusia
That accident already raised the need to authorize civil guards to use weapons that neutralize drug-running boats during a chase at sea. Either by launching a harpoon or directly shooting the engine, assuming the consequences.
The events in Huelva reopen
the wounds in Barbate two years later
The death of two Civil Guard agents when two Maritime Service vessels collided while chasing a drug-running boat off the coast of Huelva has reopened the wounds that “never fully closed” after what happened in Barbate on February 9, 2024, when two other agents died after being run over by a drug-running boat, events that left a mark on this coastal town in Cádiz.
The association Our Heart as a Flag, made up of families of civil guards, mostly women, and which was born after the tragic events in Barbate, lamented what happened in Huelva, expressing the “deep pain, indignation, and helplessness” felt by its members.
This association states that it means “reopening wounds that never finished closing,” wounds that “hurt deeply and that, with each tragedy, hurt even more because we feel again that it is too late.”
“Today helplessness returns to settle among those of us who defend the State Security Forces and Corps. It can no longer be allowed that those who dedicate their lives to protecting citizens feel abandoned or unprotected by those responsible for guaranteeing their safety and their working means,” they lament.
Our Heart as a Flag accuses the Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, of “not fulfilling his responsibility” and calls for his resignation.
With this “helplessness,” the association asks, “what more has to happen for those who have been warning about this situation for years to be heard and real decisions to be made to protect our agents?”.
Regarding the Barbate case, it is worth remembering that recently the Prosecutor’s Office presented its provisional conclusions and requested 42 years in prison for Karim E.B., the pilot of the boat that ran over the Civil Guard zodiac in which David Pérez and Miguel Ángel González – who died – were traveling, and who has been in prison since September 2024. As a result of an action classified as “deliberate,” four agents were also injured. The pilot is accused of two counts of aggravated murder, four of attempted murder, and one of aggravated assault.
After the death of the two agents in the port of Barbate, six people were arrested as alleged responsible for the events, but a subsequent report from the Central Operations Unit (UCO) determined that the boat they were traveling on had not caused the damage to the civil guards, being released from these charges but maintaining charges for belonging to a criminal gang.
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