Man shot in Marbella amid wave of drug-related crime

A man has been shot dead in the middle of the street in a residential estate in Marbella, in Spain’s Costa del Sol, in what is suspected to be a payback killing. The crime took place at around 8:30pm on Tuesday, and is being investigated by the organized crime and narcotics unit (UDYCO) of the National Police.

Although details of the crime remain unknown, preliminary evidence suggests the man was killed to settle scores between drug gangs. This is just the latest murder in a series of violent crimes to hit Costa del Sol in the past months. Since the beginning of the year, the popular tourist destination in Málaga has been rocked by around 15 murders, clashes between drug gangs and even explosions.

A man was shot dead in October while he was eating at a restaurant

In October, an explosive device went off in the Mirador de la Alquería housing estate in Benahavís, and a second one in an industrial site in San Pedro de Alcántara, Marbella. No one was killed, but the explosions caused extensive property damage, police sources said at the time. And a gym located near the affected warehouse had gone up in flames a few months earlier; the gym owner was shot down just days after that as he was emerging from a religious ceremony.

Another man was shot dead in October while he was dining at a restaurant in Fuengirola, and the body of another was found in Algeciras two hours after he was kidnapped in Estepona.

In September, police discovered a homemade explosive device near the Altos de Los Monteros housing estate on the outskirts of Marbella. Officers deactivated the device and days later arrested a Dutch man with ties to an international drug gang. At the time, then-Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido described all these incidents as “isolated events.”

English version by Melissa Kitson.