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...