The presence of organized crime in Spain, as well in many other European countries, is not restricted to the last ten years. Gangs of swindlers, bandits and prearranged smugglers, among others, have functioned, to one degree or another, all through the past. In actual fact, the international contacts of the Spanish smugglers in the neighboring French or Portuguese border constituencies have always been strong.

The root of organized crime in Spain truly began after the Spanish Civil War and the subsequent Second World War, the deterioration of the socio-economic situation in Spain. These wars resulted in the country’s global isolation and the insufficiency of many end user goods in the Spanish market (allotted randomly by the administration. All these factors added to the escalation of a previously existing modality in organized crime.

It was not until the near beginning of 1970s that the large global crime groups began to set up themselves in a major way in Spain. Secretly and silently these criminal groups began setting themselves up, in the tourist Costa del Sol, in Southern Spain. Their main movement consisted of laundering the money produced in businesses such as drug trafficking, arm trafficking, extortion and abduction. Following the generation of operating bases and incorporation of new and powerful criminal organizations, they achieved a distribution of labor so ideal that they have been able to function virtually unobserved by the majority of the common community.

The current more undermined and intercontinental organized crime is, to a great extent, an outcome of institutional disaster that has taken place in certain Spanish States. The power vacuum and the hi-tech expansion have allowed to expand and discover new sources of illegitimate business, taking advantage of technology to shun governmental controls, and in certain instances, to defy them openly.

In Spain, the main organized criminal groups are basically based in the big cities as well as the Mediterranean seashore along, with an extension to Sud-Western and Insular areas. Some of the stats for crime rates are as follows:

Each year, 700 million smuggled-in packs of tobacco are sold in Spain.
According to official figures, annually about four billions US dollars
are laundered in Spain.

The Spanish Police recognize this state of affairs and, consequently, a series of tactical, operational and organizational restructuring are being commenced with the intent of maximizing the effectiveness in the fight in opposition to this type of criminality.

There is little need to worry about our own communities in Vilanova i la Geltru, as we have our main gates engineered and staffed with remote controlled access permitted by an actual human staff at both Vilanova Park and Paramount Places. In addition, we have roving staff of on-site security to ensure the safety of our guests.