MADRID, Spain: Spain’s Civil Guard announced five arrests on Saturday after a drug trafficker’s boat rammed a patrol vessel, killing two officers during a chase.
The Civil Guard arrested three passengers on the boat after the incident on Friday in the southern port of Barbate near Cádiz, in which two officers were also injured.
Two others who were traveling in the vehicle to pick up the passengers were also detained, the Civil Guard said.
The AUGC, an association representing paramilitary police, and Spanish media shared a video of a nighttime chase in the harbor involving several vessels.
One of the two injured police officers remains in hospital, but his life is out of danger, the Civil Guard added.
Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska visited the scene of the incident, calling the incident an “assassination” and vowing “zero impunity” in an effort to stop drug trafficking.
The government of the nearby British enclave of Gibraltar also expressed condolences over the officer’s death.
In a post on X, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he “deeply regretted” the death, while the country’s royal family said on the same social network that they were “deeply saddened”.
The sea off Cádiz has seen several clashes and large drug seizures by customs and police.
Spain is the main transit point for narcotics coming to Europe from North Africa.
