Spain is considered one of five major criminal hubs in Europe due to its role in drug and human trafficking into the continent. Organized crime in Spain involves drug smuggling, robberies, and corruption. Corruption exists within law enforcement, customs, politics, the judiciary, and the private sector. While Spain has anti-organized crime units, organized criminal groups still operate through activities like interfering with law enforcement, influencing societies and economies, and avoiding attention from authorities. Corruption remains an issue that facilitates organized criminal activities in the country.

1. SPAIN
A criminal hub
Alejandra Gómez-Céspedes
Kateřina Chytilová
323 201

2. Structure
• Drugs and humans
• Robberies and thefts
• A typology of organised crime
• Corruption as an issue in the country
• The police
• Costums and excise
• Corruption in politics
• Corruption in the judicial sector
• Corruption in the private sector
• Conclusion

3. SPAIN
• 2011 – Europol Organised Crime Threat
Assessment (OCTA) Report:
Spain is one of the five criminal hubs in Europe
and it is the main south-west entry point for the
importation of drugs and illegal immigrants into
Europe
• Anti-organised crime units, offices and centers
within law enforcement bodies but organized
crime is still significant

4. Drugs and humans
• Transit country
• Distribution center
• Consumer

5. Data
• The only agency which collects and holds raw
police data relevant to organized crime at the
national level is Ministry of the Interior
• Question of validity
• the published data are incomplete or fragmented
• Since 2006 – CICO (Intelligence Center against
Organised Crime) – drugs seizures from criminal
organizations counted independently
• reports are not public

6. Smuggling of migrants
• Coast – number of immigrants coming by boats has
decreased (also thanks to bilateral agreements)
- in 2001 – 18,517 immigrants
- in 2010 – 3,632 immigrants
• French-spanish border – semi-legal immigrants – enter the
country with legal passport but stay under illegal conditions
• Impossibile to quantify – despite entry and exit controls
Spain has no way to compare those who enter with those
who leave and therefore those who remain illegally

7. Robberies and thefts
• Property crime – robbery in industrial estates,
jewellery shops and dwellings
• Albanian and Romanian criminals
• Demonstrations of Spanish Association of Jewellers,
Silversmiths and Watchmakers - costs of the sector:
• 2000 – 17 million euros
• 2001 – 32 million euros
• Hard to quantify but generally relatively low level

8. Typology
• OCTA (Europol Organised Crime Threat Assessment) typology of organized
groups:
1) interference with law enforcement and judicial processes by corruptive influence
2) influence societies and economies
3) elude law enforcement attention
- Rarely violence or intimidation
- Growing number of foreigners, decreasing number of nationals
- 2010 – Ministry of Interior – report before a Parliamentary Commission:
- The main regions: Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante, Malaga
- The value of property seized from the organized crime criminal groups in 2009:
270 million euros
- 15% of criminal groups used influence and corruption in 2009
- Multinational
- Goal = profit

9. Corruption in Spain
• 5th biggest problem
• No definition in legal system
• Spanish Criminal Code of 1995:
- Passive and active corruption of Spanish authorities and public officials (Articles
419-427)
- Trading in influence (Articles 428-431)
- Bribery in international transactions (Article 445a)
- Offences against the Treasury (Articles 305-310)
- Abuse of official authority (Articles 404-406)
- Use and misuse of sensitive information (Article 418)
- Misappropriation of public funds (Articles 432-435)
- Fraud and extortion (Articles 436-438)
- Negotiations prohibited to officials (Articles 439-441)
- Illegal excercise functions (Articles 506-508)
- Unlawful association (Article 515)

10. The way how government operates
(ungovernance)
• hints at why corruption and organized crime are
so favourable in Spain
• Reveal the existence of dysfunctional institutions
which are the cause of social problems
• Clientelism, nepotism, cronyism, patronage,
discrimination, patronage, lack of transparency
are sometimes not strictly assimilated to
corruption

11. Alejandra Nieto - Ungovernance
• Analyses the IMPACT THE LAW HAS ON THE BEHAVIOUR OF THE RECEPIENTS (citizens, public
officials, administration and judges)
• A) citizes – law is intimidating - imperative norms that impose obbligations
• B) public officials – law doesn´t possess a force and officials then dilute their responsibility in
a complex beaucratic system
• C) public administration – non-performance doesn´t carry personal responsibility but
disciplinary action with no serious consequences
• D) judiciary – criticizes direct but contradictory sentences depending on individual judges
• LAW as GUIDELINES given to the hands of judges knowing it will be partially implemented
and partially it will depend on the interpretation of individual judges
• NIETO: this is a serious problem but common
• JUDICIAL POWER is not CONSTITUTIONAL POWER because it depends on political support – it
is elected in Parliament (manipulation by parties) – also a sign of ungovernance – personal
relations and interests, politics now is a business which competes on a market for personal
benefits using corruption

12. The police
• Average level, usually doesn´t last for long
• Internal Affairs Unit (at both National Police and Guard
Civil)
• 25 police corruption cases reported in Spanish press
every year since 1996
• - Guard Civil linked to drug-trafficking network
• - National Police
• - Local Police
• - Military
• 220 officers in prison in 2010

13. Customs and excise
• 2002 – the amount of tax evasion and
carousel fraud activities broke records
• National Tax Agency – but still a lot to be done
• Underground economy – big problem
• Only 10% of the 500euro bankontes
circulating across financial institutions can be
traced, 90% involved in illegal/informal circuits
• But not necessarily connected to organized
crime groups

14. Political Corruption
• 2008 – Report on Democracy in Spain by Fundación
Alternativas:
• 151 cases of town mayors and councillors with corruptuion
offcences since 2004
• Also politicians from the three main parties /PP, PSOE, IU/ and
regional parties
• Mostly related to local levels
• MOST DISTURBING CONCLUSION: the analysis of the municipal
election results in those local goverment areas where
accusations of political corruption were made and demonstrates
limitations of the vote as a control mechanism for corruption as
many of those mayors were elected in the following elections
• Confirms that: political corruption in Spannish planning and
development sector is rampant at the local level.

15. • 2006 – EP: Auken Report on real estate, planning and
development abuses in Spain. – threat to freeze ES funds for
Spain until the abuses were addressed, but the cut was not
binding
• The report portraited devastating image, but a realistic one of
this sector in Spain – endemic in Spain, responsibility is on the
public administration which tolerates these practises
• Report condemned judicials for being unprepared and unable
to set up rules that would give compensations to victims
• Inactive, unbalanced and partial appartus, lacked clarity,
precision and certainty, legislation was inadequate in relation
to the right of ownership and environmental matters, lax
judicial proceedings, endemic corruption, encouraging greend
and spekulative conduct
• It was a third report for Spain by EU but the earlier didn´t
threaten to withdraw the funding

16. Link between corruption and
organized crime
• Depends on the definition of organized crime
• United Nations (2004):
• „an organized criminal group shall mean a
structured group of three or more persons,
existing for a period of time, and acting in
concert with the aim of committing one or
more serious crimes or offences in order to
obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or
other material benefit“

17. The judicial sector
• 2007 – Transparency International – report:
the extent of corruption in general and judicial
corruption especially
• Mendieta: 3 types of judicial corruption
• 1) corruption in the courts
• 2) judicial corruption in stricto senso
• 3) the political influence of governing bodies
of the judicial system

18. Corruption in the courts
• Common in past, currently thanks to the
computerization less common
• Concerning rather civil cervants than judges
who abuse their positions to prioritize, speed
up or delay certain proceedings, files or cases

19. Judicial corruption in stricto senso
• Voluntary loss of judicial impartiality in
exchange for bribes or extortion to ensure
favourable rulings
• exceptional

20. Political influence of governing bodies
of the judicial system
• Higher levels are less likely to be corrupt (in terms of
active or passive bribery) but are more exposed to
political influence
• Mostly by those who contributed to their
appointment
• Politicians put magistrates to the judicial governing
bodies in order to put pressure on the local judges so
that their political patrons may walk free
• Doesn´t have to be necessarily happening
nonetheless judges are imposed to the political
influence

21. Private sector corruption
• Containers - growing number of import and
export companies being involved
• 2009 – hidden cocaine in containers with bananas
-> arrests of workers in transportation and
logistics
• 2010 – cocaine in containers distributed to
different parts of Spain, the president of Terminal
Cataluna accused from granting drug traffickers
an important legal cover for the importation

22. Conclusion
• Efforts but activites don´t stop
• Criminal organisations sometimes bribe law
enforcement officials in exchange for protection
or information, transnational crime organizations
can purchase immunity
• Problem of (un)availability of official data related
to official crime
• Does in Spain exist corruption-organized crime
nexus? Depends on the definition of organized
crime.

23. Thank you for your
attention.