The recently appointed lieutenant general of the Civil Guard Manuel Navarrete (Seville, 1960) is an encyclopedia on terrorism and organized crime. With the background of having been head of counterterrorism and financial intelligence at Europol, having investigated 11-M or having started his career in the Basque Country in 1985, when many colleagues believed that the murders of agents at the hands of ETA would never end, he speaks of the emboldening of the mafiaswith the dramatic and close example of murder of two uniformed officers in Barbate (Cádiz) in February. “There is violence against the security forces, that is undeniable,” he acknowledges regarding some “more visible” and “worrying” facts, which he relates to the greater police pressure.
During the interview, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Intelligence Center against Terrorism and Organized Crime (CITCO), a center he has directed since 2020, he says that terrorism has become more decentralized and unpredictable, while criminal networks have organized as companies and they go for it. From his office in Madrid, with calm, informative spirit and a touch of humor, he explains the work of CITCO, responsible, among other tasks, for the destruction of cocaine shipments, marijuana plantations or narcolanchasa work that makes him especially proud. “I tell the minister: ‘I am the end of the drug trafficking food chain,’” he says.
Ask. What percentage of CITCO’s work can be published in a newspaper?
Answer. I think quite a bit. You have to be discreet and reserved because we work with matters that are national security and with data on people that are in police files, but it can be made more visible. I think it does not harm security at all or the reserve that we must maintain.
Q. How would you explain to someone who doesn’t know what CITCO is what it does?
R. We are an aid, a support to the State security forces, the intelligence service and the judges and prosecutors. For example, we are in charge of receiving part of the information to carry out a permanent survey of the terrorist threat and organized crime and about that we inform you of new elements, or new trends. At the same time, we also ensure that, at the political level, that is, in the Ministry of the Interior, they are informed, because then this leads to decisions at the operational level. We also support the coordination and continuity of security policies against terrorism and organized crime.
Q. How has terrorism changed in ten years?
R. It has been evolving towards a more decentralized, opportunistic and indiscriminate terrorism, especially based on propaganda and the use of social networks and the Internet. This has meant that the way of evaluating the threat, of protecting critical structures, of incorporating new legal measures and new legal types, both in Europe and in Spain, has had to adapt. Trips to the terrorist zone: where it was not contemplated before, it is now contemplated. In recent years we have also seen an increase in violence that can be attributed to groups that always seek the excuse of racism or diversity or any type of manipulation. The covid crisis has meant that, with the isolation and the imposition of unpopular measures, the scope of radicalism in many facets, almost in a buffet of discrepancies, has grown and now we find ourselves in somewhat worrying situations. In Spain there have been some cases that are being monitored. In Europe we know that there has also been a legal reaction because they have been banned.
Q. And organized crime?
R. There has been diversity and it has been industrialized. The trend has been to do it faster and with more benefit. It has always had an important presence in Spain, in principle linked to the Italian mafias. In the late 90s, of Russian origin. And now, this new trend from the Mocro Maffia (criminal structure whose members are mainly of North African originwho lives in the Netherlands and has even threatened Princess Amalia of Orange). We have seen that they have evolved towards more powerful structures, they want to control the entire chain and have become much more sophisticated. By growing faster and with more interest, they have collided head-on with situations, such as the security forces, or the society that is affected, receiving this threat more closely. We have seen the situations that have been experienced in Ecuador, Sweden, Germany, Belgium and Holland, where apparently it was something marginal, but we see that the impact it has in some aspects has been very great. Both in the crime itself, and in threats to protected witnesses, to journalists, even in actions against the security forces and also against the political sphere.
Q. How implemented is the Mocro Maffia in Spain?
R. We see more of the effects than the implementation for now, although we have detected people linked to these clans and with a certain weight in organized crime. We have not had too many threats to the security environment beyond organized crime to make more profit and faster. We have not detected that they want to influence a further sphere, as in other European countries, but we are very attentive. What worries us most, in addition to the effect that organized crime has, is the widespread corruption of people, of security forces, even aspiring to some type of political corruption.
Q. And what are those effects?
R. The increase in organized crime and especially polycrime. Not only is there drug trafficking and money laundering, there is also an evolution in trafficking, maintaining the traditional ones of cocaine, hashish, marijuana, but also synthetic drugs about which we are very concerned, such as synthetic opioids. They are faster to produce, they are cheaper and they also have much more harmful effects on everyone’s health. In addition to that, issues of arms trafficking or human trafficking.
Q. Has the panorama changed a lot the decryption of communication platforms such as EncroChat?
R. Absolutely. We have seen a different dimension of organized crime. I was at Europol when the first operations, Encrochat and Sky ECC, were carried out by Belgian, French and Dutch colleagues. There we saw the massive nature of the crime they committed, the level of impunity with which they understood organized crime. They talked openly, took photos with wads of money, talked about selective eliminations. It was like doing a master’s degree on the incidence of organized crime primarily in Europe, although not only. We saw that it covered more areas than we had been able to detect. Above all, a lot has been learned that they operate as a company.
Q. In recent years, an emboldening of agents has been perceived, with cases such as the murder of the Barbate agents. Do they feel unpunished?
R. I wouldn’t talk about impunity. In my opinion, what is happening is that the drug trafficking situation in the southern part of Spain and in many areas has had a level of stability that kept it out of the visibility it has now. Incidents have increased in 2020-2021, with forces and bodies of the State and between clans. Unfortunately, the Costa del Sol is one of the places where the most the settling of accounts between them. What happened in Barbate has been tremendously unfortunate. There is no need to reduce it, of course, but the number of incidents remains the same. Yes, it is true that there is violence against the security forces, that is undeniable, but I believe that it is based on the reinforcements that have been made through the Gibraltar plan investigations and deployments make the possibility of encountering the Police, the Civil Guard or Customs on the Guadalquivir River, in Barbate, in Tarifa, or in La Línea much more frequent. Right now they are more visible and more worrying. Can we talk about a higher level of violence? Maybe yes, maybe the incidents that exist have spikes in violence that we didn’t see before.
Q. In addition to jihadism, are there or have they detected terrorist movements such as left-wing dissidents? abertzale, anarchists, or extreme right?
Q. In the area of independence terrorism, in Spain, no. From the point of view of extremism, what worries us is any expression that goes against the security of the State, but both of the independence movement that existed and exists in the Basque Country or that existed and exists in Catalonia or in Galicia, no, We don’t have performances right now. There are no actions because the form of expression or the way in which they are understanding that radical position does not touch the criminal sphere, that is what judges are for in that sense. Yes, we have detected actions by supremacist groups, with neo-Nazi links, above all, and by anti-system radicals, from environmentalism. There are arrests in Spain. In fact, last year there were more arrests for certain anti-system violence in general or with multiple motivations than in the area of terrorism.
Q. Is it very difficult to guard and destroy drugs with the pace of seizures in recent years?
R. Management is complicated from the beginning. We are on average three and a half to four months, because there is a classification process and also the availability of thermal elimination. Not all ovens can eliminate cocaine, the emissions are complicated and have to be very exhaustively controlled. The problem with hashish is that since it is a resin you need almost 1,000º to burn it, and it also rises very quickly, and not all ovens like that. Sometimes, the furnaces also have technical and environmental shutdowns and we can have a backlog, but in general we have managed to alleviate that pressure a lot, which also means having fewer police and civil guards on the street.
Q. And is it easy to find companies that do this work?
A: No. Now there is more offer. There are not many companies, but some are.
Q. What is the worst situation you have had to experience in your career?
R. I don’t want to be dramatic. I have been there for many years. Since I left as an officer in ’85 in the Basque Country, in San Sebastián, in Intxaurrondo, I have experienced many difficult, hard situations. Then on 11-M, he was the Civil Guard investigator. I have experienced many very complicated things. What has always hurt me is when I don’t give the answer quickly. I’m almost obsessed with the spirit of service, that the people I work with are excited about what they do.
