Mayor demands extra police to bust ‘narco’ mafia gang accused of making threats and setting cars on fire over closure of cockfighting arena in Costa Blanca region

THE mayor of a town in the province of Alicante wants extra police deployed to bust a mafia gang that deals drugs and organises cockfights.

Aspe Mayor Antonio Puerto has criticised recent threats against him, his fellow councillors and civil servants.

On Monday, a car belonging to Aspe police chief Jose Vicente Perez was set on fire.

READ MORE:

In July, a van belonging to the mayor’s father was found burned out.

The problems have increased after a large-scale operation in January, in which 60 Policia Nacional officers raided a warehouse bar called ‘Gallera El Chato’, which also housed a cockfighting arena.

19 people were arrested and 150 others identified.

The Aspe city council then closed the location because it did not have a permit. 19 crimes were found, including drug trafficking.

Antonio Puerto said: “What is happening with the threats and the car attacks is the work of a drug mafia that wants to move around freely.”

He said he had received “threats and persecution” for reopening the cockfighting venue and stressed that those who suffer most are the families of the affected councillors.

Puerto has demanded that the government’s subdelegate in the province of Alicante, Juan Antonio Nieves, deploy special units from the Guardia Civil or the Policia Nacional to solve the problem.

Police Chief Jose Vicente Perez said the people who made the threats actually carried out their act by setting two vehicles on fire.

“They don’t care if it becomes known that it was them, because in secret they boast about what they have done and they go unpunished.”