Gang Wars on the Costa - The True Story of the Bloody Conflict Raging in Paradise. Wensley Clarkson
or the resources to investigate every single crime,’ explained Sergi. ‘It’s almost as if they are happy for us to continue bringing money into the economy because it means a better life for everyone down here. They need us here. It’s been like this for so long the whole place would collapse if criminals were not operating here.’ Sergi was very careful not to include himself when he used the word ‘criminals’.
Most gangs down here on the Costa del Sol are involved in drugs, prostitution, robbery and fraud. Yet Sergi had a fair point. The more successful the criminal and the more people he or she employed, the more money generated for the local economy. It’s the biggest irony of life in southern Spain.
As it became increasingly clear when I met these gangsters that I was trying to present a warts-and-all look at the underworld in Spain, I was granted an audience with one of the most feared British gangsters of all time, who had resided in the Costa del Sol for three years.
We’ll call him ‘Stan’ because even if I used only his real Christian name, every other criminal would know precisely who I was talking about. ‘Stan’ is a member of one of the UK’s most famous criminal families. He had heard about my efforts to write this book and wanted to ‘get a few things straight’.
Stan might have been in his mid-sixties but he stood ramrod straight and spoke with a soft voice that seemed to underline his hardness in a twisted way. He wasn’t massive by any means but he had the darkest eyes I have ever encountered. They were matt black cesspools with not a flicker of emotion in them.
Stan knew all the players on the Costa del Crime and I suspected he was still operating with impunity along the entire coastline. Yet he seemed very relaxed as we spoke in a Spanish restaurant situated far away from the usual criminal haunts. Earlier he’d rolled into the car park driving a brand new Spanish-registered Range Rover.
‘I don’t like those hooker joints full of coked-up villains,’ Stan told me. ‘I appreciate Spain for what it really is: a wonderful, diverse place full of easy-going pleasant people who enjoy a rich, good lifestyle compared to all the miserable sods back in Blighty.’
With Stan I felt I was in the company of someone very menacing, but he had this ability to make it all sound so normal. ‘Look. I ain’t no angel but I’ve run a very successful group of businesses down the years and a lot of people have got very rich off the back of me.’
Leaning forward, Stan clocked me long and hard for a few moments and then just like the managing director of crime that he was, he tried to put me at my ease. ‘Listen. I know where I come from. I know that certain things have had to be done to ensure my businesses are kept afloat but we are in troubled times now and we all need to be more sensible.’
It dawned on me that Stan was hoping to use me to send out a message to his criminal rivals to stay calm and avoid the very gang wars this book is highlighting. I couldn’t help feeling it was all a little bit late for that. Stan must have guessed my intentions because he went on, ‘I know you’re going to write about all the killings and the mischief and the drugs and all that stuff. There’s no denying this place is a cesspit in that respect but we have to survive don’t we?’
I wasn’t sure how to respond to that one. After all, what rights did a multimillionaire hood whose fortune was based on illegal drugs have to survive? But I didn’t take Stan up on that point. Instead I asked him about the current situation and who was likely to suffer the most.
‘It’s the Brits who are taking the most knocks. No doubt about it. A lot of these characters are getting on now and we all come from a time when business was business but you never overlapped into people’s normal lives. We considered ourselves soldiers.
‘If one of us got killed because of a deal that went pear-shaped, then that was the way it was. It’s the risk we’ve all taken down the years. Sure it’s sad when anyone dies but if you are a soldier then you have to deal with that sort of stuff. But today it’s different – the up-and-coming youngsters are causing chaos and we’re all suffering as a result.’
Stan cited a classic example a couple of years ago when an Irish criminal and his family were targeted by a hit squad after a drugs deal went wrong. ‘That was fucking outrageous,’ said Stan. ‘I heard this bloke was in trouble with a mob of eastern Europeans and they went after him, but to target his wife and kids as well. That’s out of order. What is the world coming to when that sort of thing happens?’
Stan admitted that back in Britain, foreign gangs have not made such a terrifying impression on the home-grown criminals. ‘I hate to say it but the coppers are smarter back in the UK and that’s made it harder for these foreign bastards to get a toehold. The cops out here are fucking useless. It’s worked to our advantage for years but now we’re paying the price for it.’ And none of this was said with even a hint of irony.
Stan told me all about what he calls ‘the real fuckin’ underworld’ that exists on the Costa del Sol. ‘I came here a few years back because I knew I could run everything from here with a lot less hassle. At first it was fine. Some of the foreigners popped up now and again but I made sure they realised I was running my own outfit and by and large they left me alone.’
But, says Stan, a new desperation has crept into the criminal atmosphere these days. ‘The middle-of-the-road fellas are making fuck-all money now. Before, they could make a quick drugs deal, buy a house for cash and turn it around for a healthy profit and no one was the wiser. But the recession kicked off here way before it hit the UK and that’s changed all the rules.’
‘What do you mean by the rules?’ I asked.
Stan narrowed his eyes. ‘They’ve got too fuckin’ desperate and they’re running around in circles. That’s why there’s so much bloodshed out here these days. There’s no money for anything any more and no one wants to share the profits, either. Do you know, the other day one of my oldest mates out here was almost topped just because some Bulgarian fucker decided he wouldn’t share the profits from a deal even though they’d been doing that sort of business together for years.’
Stan continued: ‘It’s like a great big spider’s web out here and if you get caught up in it there is no escape. I’ve still got most people’s respect out here because my reputation is well known but I stay out of the web deliberately. That’s why I’m meeting you here in an ordinary Spanish restaurant off the beaten track. Those mugs down in the port are asking for trouble. They’re rubbing people’s noses in it and that’s when the trouble starts.’
‘But,’ I pressed, ‘who is running things out here these days?’ Stan took one of his customary deep breaths and continued: ‘You just wouldn’t believe some of the characters pulling strings out here these days. There are two fellas whose names appear in the papers all the time as billionaires and they’re probably cleaning up two thirds of all the “business” out here. It’s bloody outrageous but there’s no point taking them on because they are more powerful than anyone you’ve ever come across.’
Stan then proceeded to name these two ‘kingpins’ and I was stunned because they are both supposedly responsible law-abiding businessmen back in their home country. ‘These blokes have got whole governments in their pockets. When the Spanish elected a new left-wing government a couple of years back, I presumed these two characters would quieten down a bit. Far from it. They just chucked some huge bucks in the direction of a few officials in the new government and next thing you know they’re back to running things down here.’
Stan admits he keeps a low profile here on the Costa del Sol these days but that doesn’t mean he is no longer a very powerful force to be reckoned with. ‘They know who I am and I know who they are. Let’s just leave it at that shall we?’ I didn’t argue.
Speaking with the kind of chilling focus that could halt a Chieftain tank on a battlefield, Stan went on to tell me his fears for the future of the Costa del Sol. His face creased up with seriousness as he went on: ‘The bloodbath is going to get worse. These trigger-happy youngsters don’t seem to have a fear of death like we did. It’s all live for today because we might be gone by tomorrow stuff. But it’s stupid and short-sighted because