The Costa del Sol in Spain has long been linked to organised crime, with the sun-drenched luxury harbour of Puerto Banus, on the edge of Marbella, being a place where the wealthy mix with serious organised criminals.
Luxury cars such as Ferraris, Rolls Royces and Lamborghinis are a common sight, along with expensive boats, while visitors frequent high-end fashion shops such as Louis Vuitton and Hermes. The area sees a mix of Spanish, Middle Eastern and British registered number plates, along with Belgian, Dutch and those from other European countries.
From property boom to Costa del Crime
The region saw a surge of money in the 1960s when property was built at an extraordinary rate, transforming the south of Spain into the tourist hotspot it is today. Hotels, luxury apartments and villas were built overnight, and as they were rapidly built, money came into the country just as quickly, with foreign business owners and high-ranking criminals buying up much of the property.
Before Spain could curb the impact, the area was known as the Costa del Crime to many people across the globe. Juan José Gómez Millán previously told Spanish outlet Ara: "The Costa del Sol is the Wall Street of organised crime." The retired national police officer explained the dynamic of Marbella having fought drug trafficking for three decades in Spain. Marbella is believed to be home to representatives of more than 100 organised crime groups from as many as 60 countries.
Fugitives and the shift to the Costa Blanca
One notable fugitive who has chosen to reside in the Costa del Sol is former Brookside star Philip Foster. While conning people out of millions using a sham modelling network in the UK, Foster was living a life many could only dream of. Using his criminal proceeds, he bought himself a Bentley, paid for his daughter's Porsche and flaunted his Rolex to his criminal associates.
An investigation by the Liverpool Echo found Foster had fled the area and had since moved to the Orihuela Costa in the Costa Blanca, more than 300 miles from Marbella. David Pamies, from the Spanish outlet Información, told the publication: "It's possible that there's a bit more pressure on the Costa del Sol. There's more pressure because, for example, from the point of view of public opinion, there's a feeling that, for example, the Italian mafia, the Russian mafia, and other mafias have settled on the Costa del Sol. And so maybe the media spotlight is there, and maybe someone might feel more intimidated to do their things, and the Costa Blanca area is much easier. It's an impression."
"But as a place to hide or to take shelter, it's been a perfect place since the 80s. Jihadists have hidden here, terrorists, everything you can imagine. And there have been no problems. It's an ideal place."
Violent overspill and the new reality
An influx of criminals has also seen an overspill into other areas in the Costa del Sol where the A-7, Spain's longest motorway, connects the various towns on the coast. Last year, Fuengirola, a 40 minute drive from Puerto Banus, saw the brutal killing of Scottish gangsters Eddie Lyons Jr and Ross Monaghan inside the latter's Irish bar on the coast of Spain. Michael Terrence Riley, from Huyton, has been accused of shooting the pair as they were watching the Champions League final with their friends on May 31.
Between the two tourist traps sits Sitio de Calahonda, where, just weeks before the Fuengirola shooting, Steven Gray was shot dead as he left Finca Naundrup in the hillside town on Easter Monday after playing football with friends. Daniela Wenk, who runs the largest local Facebook group in Sitio de Calahonda and is known by her friends as the "woman behind the curtain", told the Echo: "I think most people don't even think about [crime] anymore because there's so much going on here. Only three days ago, another one was stabbed to death [who had] already had been shot one or two years ago, [they] ended up in a wheelchair, and now they [have] stabbed him to death."
"You see CCTV images of shootings in Marbella and Fuengirola. It's hard to keep up with the stories because we have a lot of that going on here. But not only in Calahonda, on the whole Costa del Sol. Our geographic location, probably also that's very good for [drug] trafficking and that, and plus where a lot of the money is."
Steven Gray's killers are yet to be caught, with the 32-year-old, originally from Bootle, Merseyside, having lived in the area at the time of his death. His killers fled the scene before dumping their car on a winding road going down the hill towards the A-7 and setting it on fire. Inside the car were two guns believed to be the murder weapons.
From negotiations to gratuitous violence
It is widely believed that lower level criminals have entered the area in recent years, which has pushed violent crime into the spotlight. In the 80s and 90s it was believed high-rolling criminals would mix with the businessmen, unable to tell who was who. It was around this time Curtis Warren is believed to have used the south coast of Spain, in collaboration with other drug gangs, to bring in narcotics from Venezuela. And following Warren's conviction, it was the Coggins brothers who filled his shoes, using the Costa del Sol to transport drugs.
Like "Cocky", Francis and Vincent Coggins were heads of an international drugs cartel with connections across mainland Europe and straight from the source in South America. During the drugs boom of the 90s, Francis moved to the Costa del Sol to establish the syndicate, smuggling cocaine from South America, through Europe and into the UK. The gang built up its standing in the criminal hierarchy to rival factions from Ireland, Russia and the Americas. They are believed to be the biggest drug dealers from Liverpool since Warren. The pair, along with several of their gang members, were jailed following a multi-year investigation by authorities.
Now, guns are on the streets of the Costa del Sol, with men from Liverpool linked to these serious and violent crimes. "The violence is gratuitous. In the past, criminal groups negotiated, they talked to each other," said Antonio Rodríguez Puerta, chief of the Udyco Costa del Sol (the National police's drug and organised crime unit), previously told The Guardian. "They'd lose some of their supply, or one of their shipments, and they'd come to an agreement. Now we're seeing that if something like that happens, in the majority of cases, they just go straight to killing."
