Smoking and Sniffing Out Profit
My daughter was lent a book to read last week. It's Fariña, by Nacho Carretero. Fariña means flour in Galician, and is also the slang word for cocaine. The book tells of how narcs operated in Galicia, connections with the Medellín cartel and the "great" narc families of Galicia. It also talks about how drug smuggling came about.
There has been a tradition since before the civil war of goods transporting themselves across the border between Portugal and Galicia. Not so long ago, the border crossings were patrolled by the Policía Nacional on the Spanish side, and the Guarda Republicana on the Portuguese. Merchandise was controlled, and people had to show their passports. Now, thanks to the European Union, it's just a matter of keeping on the road you're on. The only things that change are the language, the road signs, and a little bit of the architecture.
During the civil war and just after, Spain was plunged into misery and need. Portugal at that time was a strong economy. Across the border came necessities such as penicillin, coffee, rice, sugar, oil, soap, mechanical parts, and even weapons when the maquis were still roaming the hills. Along the eastern border between Galicia and Portugal, this was done overland. Further west, it was done crossing the river Miño, and even bringing loads under cover of night into the hidden coves and inlets of the Rías Baixas, the southern estuaries.
The people who dedicated themselves to that business, the contrabandistas, were held in high esteem by most of the population. Of course, they brought much-needed necessities. Even the Guardia Civil, the keepers of law and order and the borders at that time, sometimes collaborated for the right price. This collaboration has continued into the dark times of drug trafficking. Every time there has been a round-up of drug smugglers, there have been one or two Guardia Civil officers rounded up, as well. Some time ago, at a post with seven officers on duty, three or four of them were arrested for being involved in drug smuggling.
From the 60's onward, the Spanish economy hit the boom times, and what was now profitable was tobacco. Tobacco has always been a strictly regulated article. It was a monopoly that the government operated until the late 1990's. The only legal tobacco was that sold by the state company, Tabacalera. Anything else was contraband. Now, though no longer state-owned, it is still heavily taxed. A pack of cigarettes can cost between four and five euros. (It's more expensive in other countries, as my husband found out when he bought a pack for six euros in France three years ago. Still, it helped him decide to quit.) A contraband pack can cost up to two euros less. Spain being full of heavy smokers, contraband tobacco was a boom business up until the late eighties. By then, tobacco was coming in on ships that would offload onto small, manouverable motorboats.
Many, many people participated, in many, many villages and towns. Sometimes, entire towns. In Vilanova de Arousa, a pretty little town near Vilagarcía, with beautiful beaches, the lights would go off and on three times to tell the motorboats all was well and they could offload the merchandise. The lights of the entire town. In other places, empty houses were used for temporary storage with and without the owner's knowledge. Locally, I know of quite a few people who were involved in moving tobacco under cover of night. One person even acted as a lookout on a chimney of a house on a hill, to make sure no police car came near, while packages of tobacco were being taken out of temporary storage onto vans to continue their trip. And just about every owner of every bar dealt in contraband. When someone asked for a pack of Winston, if the bartender knew the person, he would be asked if he wanted regular or black. The black sold very well because it was much cheaper, and sometimes of even better quality than the legal packs.
Millions of pesetas were made during those years in these surrounding areas. Millions more were made in subsequent years when the Colombians got in contact with the local mafia families. In the late eighties was when the Medellín cartel got involved, and local capos made their tens of millions. Even though tobacco still remained and remains profitable, the merchandise became cocaine. Instead of Spain, the customer was the rest of Europe. Galicia's little coves and inlets became the gateway of Colombian drugs into the continent of Europe. Most little people stopped being involved in this commerce, though some remained. And hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of pesetas, could still be made if you didn't care about being stopped by the police and given a suspended sentence for transporting drugs. Locally, I know and suspect of some who probably remained involved in contraband when it became a question of drugs. One I know went to prison a few months, another went on a long "vacation."
After the very public trials of some of the biggest capos, the drug smuggling went into decline in Galicia, though some still remained. And it is now coming back. It's more difficult now, because the laws to offset money laundering have become much more strict. If, twenty years ago, the local economy benefitted from the inflow of black money from tobacco and drugs, now the money goes directly to countries where few questions are asked, though those countries are now becoming fewer and fewer. The Guardias who deal with drug trafficking are also rotated, but the spies of the capos usually sniff them out. But these new Guardias are not so easily disposed toward accepting bribes. Still, thousands of kilos of drugs, mostly from South America, some from Asia, still enter Europe through our estuaries. And while there remains a demand, it will continue.
There has been a tradition since before the civil war of goods transporting themselves across the border between Portugal and Galicia. Not so long ago, the border crossings were patrolled by the Policía Nacional on the Spanish side, and the Guarda Republicana on the Portuguese. Merchandise was controlled, and people had to show their passports. Now, thanks to the European Union, it's just a matter of keeping on the road you're on. The only things that change are the language, the road signs, and a little bit of the architecture.
During the civil war and just after, Spain was plunged into misery and need. Portugal at that time was a strong economy. Across the border came necessities such as penicillin, coffee, rice, sugar, oil, soap, mechanical parts, and even weapons when the maquis were still roaming the hills. Along the eastern border between Galicia and Portugal, this was done overland. Further west, it was done crossing the river Miño, and even bringing loads under cover of night into the hidden coves and inlets of the Rías Baixas, the southern estuaries.
The people who dedicated themselves to that business, the contrabandistas, were held in high esteem by most of the population. Of course, they brought much-needed necessities. Even the Guardia Civil, the keepers of law and order and the borders at that time, sometimes collaborated for the right price. This collaboration has continued into the dark times of drug trafficking. Every time there has been a round-up of drug smugglers, there have been one or two Guardia Civil officers rounded up, as well. Some time ago, at a post with seven officers on duty, three or four of them were arrested for being involved in drug smuggling.
From the 60's onward, the Spanish economy hit the boom times, and what was now profitable was tobacco. Tobacco has always been a strictly regulated article. It was a monopoly that the government operated until the late 1990's. The only legal tobacco was that sold by the state company, Tabacalera. Anything else was contraband. Now, though no longer state-owned, it is still heavily taxed. A pack of cigarettes can cost between four and five euros. (It's more expensive in other countries, as my husband found out when he bought a pack for six euros in France three years ago. Still, it helped him decide to quit.) A contraband pack can cost up to two euros less. Spain being full of heavy smokers, contraband tobacco was a boom business up until the late eighties. By then, tobacco was coming in on ships that would offload onto small, manouverable motorboats.
Many, many people participated, in many, many villages and towns. Sometimes, entire towns. In Vilanova de Arousa, a pretty little town near Vilagarcía, with beautiful beaches, the lights would go off and on three times to tell the motorboats all was well and they could offload the merchandise. The lights of the entire town. In other places, empty houses were used for temporary storage with and without the owner's knowledge. Locally, I know of quite a few people who were involved in moving tobacco under cover of night. One person even acted as a lookout on a chimney of a house on a hill, to make sure no police car came near, while packages of tobacco were being taken out of temporary storage onto vans to continue their trip. And just about every owner of every bar dealt in contraband. When someone asked for a pack of Winston, if the bartender knew the person, he would be asked if he wanted regular or black. The black sold very well because it was much cheaper, and sometimes of even better quality than the legal packs.
Millions of pesetas were made during those years in these surrounding areas. Millions more were made in subsequent years when the Colombians got in contact with the local mafia families. In the late eighties was when the Medellín cartel got involved, and local capos made their tens of millions. Even though tobacco still remained and remains profitable, the merchandise became cocaine. Instead of Spain, the customer was the rest of Europe. Galicia's little coves and inlets became the gateway of Colombian drugs into the continent of Europe. Most little people stopped being involved in this commerce, though some remained. And hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of pesetas, could still be made if you didn't care about being stopped by the police and given a suspended sentence for transporting drugs. Locally, I know and suspect of some who probably remained involved in contraband when it became a question of drugs. One I know went to prison a few months, another went on a long "vacation."
After the very public trials of some of the biggest capos, the drug smuggling went into decline in Galicia, though some still remained. And it is now coming back. It's more difficult now, because the laws to offset money laundering have become much more strict. If, twenty years ago, the local economy benefitted from the inflow of black money from tobacco and drugs, now the money goes directly to countries where few questions are asked, though those countries are now becoming fewer and fewer. The Guardias who deal with drug trafficking are also rotated, but the spies of the capos usually sniff them out. But these new Guardias are not so easily disposed toward accepting bribes. Still, thousands of kilos of drugs, mostly from South America, some from Asia, still enter Europe through our estuaries. And while there remains a demand, it will continue.
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