Bureaucratic maze deteriorates confiscated assets from drug trafficking in Spain and hinders new social uses

What happens to the houses, cars or boats of drug traffickers when they are arrested? All assets seized for drug trafficking go through several phases until they reach the Fund for Assets Seized for Illicit Drug Trafficking, which reports to  the Ministry of Health. In the last decade, 19,804 assets have been confiscated in Spain, from objects such as jewelry or cash to vehicles, boats and buildings.

Since 2003, Spain’s  legislation regulates the confiscation process and establishes the creation of a State fund. On the other hand, the National Plan on Drugs (PNSD, acronym in Spanish) is responsible for the custody, transfer and auction of confiscated assets. With the money obtained, the Fund tenders aid for prevention and reintegration programmes for drug addicts, the improvement of the pursuit of drug trafficking, reinforcing the resources of the State Security Forces and Corps and strengthening international cooperation programmes.

Confiscation in Spain: priority is given to auctions, but experts call for increased transfers

When someone investigated for drug trafficking crimes is arrested, all their assets are seized. Any assets that the person may have hidden are also tracked , a process in which the ORGA (Office for the Recovery and Management of Assets), dependent on the Ministry of Justice, is involved. Once located, these are transferred to the judicial authority, which retains them until there is a final judgment in the case. After the verdict, which sometimes happens 10 or 12 years after the seizure, these assets become the property of the Confiscated Assets Fund, explains Joan R. Villalbí, Government delegate for the National Plan on Drugs.

After being included in the Fund, the assets can be auctioned, transferred, assigned or sold. The beneficiaries, stipulated in Law 17/2003, which regulates the Confiscated Assets Fund, of the assets and the money that the Fund obtains from the auctions, can be: the State Security Forces with jurisdiction over drug trafficking, town councils, regions and NGOs at the regional or state level that carry out activities for the prevention or reintegration of drug addicts.

However, the associations and entities that work on the front line in this field point out some deficiencies in the distribution of aid that prevent them from expanding the scope of their activities. Many of them do not meet the requirements to obtain the largest lines of aid, so they depend on those that the Fund transfers to the regions for distribution and that, in many cases, do not respond to, or report, the social problems that drug trafficking causes in their areas.

On the other hand, confiscated objects are rarely transferred to this type of entity, since in Spain, according to the law itself, monetization is prioritised. The experts consulted do not downplay this option, but warn that, to fight drug trafficking and its social roots, the direct transfer of goods to local communities should be encouraged so that they can enjoy them directly and so that awareness is created that the fight against drug trafficking is tangible and real.

Only 3.35% of confiscated goods are transferred to social services

The National Plan on Drugs (PNSD) reports show that, between 2013 and 2023, up to 7,833 vehicles have been confiscated, originating from drug trafficking. This is the most confiscated type of good in Spain, followed by “objects”, of which no details are specified in the reports (6,675), companies (2,025), boats (1,340), real estate (1,025) and jewellery (869).

The PNSD indicates that under the category of objects are grouped goods “off the market or of very little value and deteriorated”. More than 50% are mobile phones, “normally  obsolete and with personal data”. There are also clothes, household goods, drug handling material, costume jewellery and trinkets or hardware “that are very difficult to monetise”.

Andalusia is the region that has received the most funds in social aid from the Fund, with 17.5 million euros since 2013. Catalonia receives 13.5 million euros and is followed by the Community of Madrid with 10.8 million. Always in similar amounts year after year since many of the tenders published are repeated periodically. The Fund obtains this money from the auctions of the goods. With the money raised in the last decade, according to data from the annual reports of the PNSD, 94,766,262 euros have been allocated to projects related to the prevention of drug addiction, with money charged to the Fund.

Regarding the years, 2016 was the year in which most assets were seized, with 4,046. In 2020, due to the pandemic, at least: 977 assets. Andalusia leads the number of inventoried assets, with 1,615, with the provinces of Malaga and Cadiz leading the way. It is followed by the Community of Madrid with 544 and Catalonia with 485. It should be noted that these inventoried assets are located in each of these regions because it is the place where they are stored during the trial until it is decided to auction or transfer them, it does not have to be the place where they were seized.

Maldita.es made a FOIA request to the National Plan on Drugs to find out the destination of the assets that have not been auctioned. According to the data provided, since 2018 the fund has inventoried 4,859 properties, of which 85.5% (4,154) were abandoned. The Fund details that abandoned properties are agreed upon in an Adjudication Coordination Table due to their “material or functional deterioration, or due to the high costs of storage, conservation or administration”. Only 3.35% of these have been transferred to other entities for social use.

An example of the transfer of confiscated assets is the mansion in la Finca El Campell, in Pedreguer (Alicante). Since 2008, first the Justice and then the Fund signed an agreement with the town council to allow its social use, focused on the prevention and assistance of drug addiction. Among other organizations, AMADEM has its office, an association that cares for people with mental illnesses and, in “a high percentage” of cases, they live with some addiction, says its coordinator, Esther Escrivá.

However, cases like El Campell are exceptional, in fact, it is the only property that has been given away for free since 2003, when the Fund was created. Generally, the assets are auctioned, “monetized” and then allocated to prevention projects, concludes Villalbí.

Anti-drug associations demand specific plans to be eligible for direct aid

The Fund cooperates with the regions, city councils and associations or foundations. However, the direct aid it gives is subject to a series of requirements that are established in each public call, also regulated. Applicants must be town councils of municipalities with at least 100,000 inhabitants or provincial capitals and the associations must have a national or, at least, regional scope.

Campo de Gibraltar (Cádiz) is one of the most affected areas in Spain by drug trafficking and its resulting problems, as it is one of the gateways for drugs to Spain and Europe. However, of the seven municipalities that comprise Campo, only Algeciras can opt for direct aid from the Confiscated Property Fund based on the population requirements set by the ministry, as it is the only one with more than 100,000 citizens.

Francisco Mena is the president of the Coordinadora Alternativas, an entity that brings together the anti-drug associations of Campo de Gibraltar. “It is a completely unfair law. The only town council that can benefit from it is Algeciras. And the town council of La Línea [de la Concepción], with the significant impact it has from drug trafficking, cannot benefit from these funds,” protests Mena.

The law establishes that entities or councils that do not meet the requirements can opt for the aid established by the Fund for the regions. However, Mena points out that the situation in Campo de Gibraltar is different and that  it is not enough, for example, to stick to the data on drug consumption to design the aid that the Junta de Andalusia grants on the basis of what is transferred to it by the PNSD : “Here there is no more drug consumption than in other territories, but we have a different problem to the rest of the terrotirues, which is the environment that is created around drug trafficking where, due to lack of opportunities, young people from some neighbourhoods get into it.”

Currently, with the aid they receive from the Junta, the Coordinadora Alternativas attends to the needs of the areas most affected by drug trafficking in Campo de Gibraltar. Among them are activities such as summer canteens for youth whose families are in a vulnerable situation, summer camps, job placement plans... But Mena says that it is not enough and demands that the institutions stop “passing the buck to each other”: “The Fund and the Board could sit down to create a series of specific targeted aids for Campo de Gibraltar.”

This, in Mena’s opinion, could greatly improve the situation and serve as a remedy, but he warns that action must be taken as soon as possible: “If a 16, 17 or 18-year-old kid knows that he will not have any opportunity, drug trafficking quickly captures him. And once they are in that world, they don't go out there because they get used to earning 3,000 euros in one night... The ideal is to work before that circumstance occurs.”

Speeding up social reuse from judicial processes to reduce the deterioration and asset stripping

The data on abandonment and deterioration of confiscated assets are admitted by the authorities themselves in the reports and transferred data. Many of the hundreds of assets that arrive at the Fund are in a state that prevents them from being sold, auctioned or transferred. In 2023 alone, 798 assets were abandoned (385 objects, 370 vehicles and 43 boats), and from 2018 to July 2024, 4,020 were abandoned; more than half, objects.

The Galician Foundation Against Drug Trafficking is a pioneering organisation that, since 2019, has been offering assistance to Galician courts to manage assets seized from drug trafficking, not yet confiscated for use, as well as acting in the field of social awareness. Its manager, Fernando J. Alonso, says that since they began with this task they have managed around 250 seized movable assets valued at approximately 1.3 million euros.

However, it is an option that works “on demand”. “We take charge of the management of movable assets when the court asks us to, which is much less frequent than we would like,” explains Alonso.

Alonso calls for this collaboration to be extended so that the return of organised crime assets to society is much more “agile”. This can happen, Alonso continues, by encouraging the possibility that assets, while they are seized in the middle of a judicial process, can be temporarily transferred, as occurred at the end of the 90s with the sailboat ‘Laion’. “While it is not sold [pending its final confiscation with the sentence], that asset can be providing a service to society,” Alonso reasons, and adds by giving an example: “If a car cannot be sold, for whatever reason, let’s transfer it so that it can be used while its destination is decided… Let’s transfer it temporarily, even if it is. In this way it provides a great benefit to society if you manage to ensure that a social organization can benefit from it.”

The Foundation has a similar problem to the Coordinadora Alternativas, which, as it does not operate outside the region, is not eligible for direct aid from the Fund to finance its activities, so its interlocution is with the Xunta de Galicia... “It is paradoxical, because our work is also for the Fund in the end. If the Foundation is not there, when the sentence for a car that can be sold for 20,000 euros reaches the Fund, what it will receive is scrap metal lying on the street, because [if it deteriorates] that car is not worth 20,000 euros but one hundredth of that, it is not just that it collects money, it is that [the Fund] will have to spend it [to get rid of it].”

It is necessary, the Foundation says, to reform the rules that regulate the Fund so that more entities can opt for more aid, and to value the work of organisations like theirs, which from civil society are directly responsible for managing the reuse of goods by local communities. The latter, they point out, serves especially to raise awareness against “criminals,” but to do so they need more capacity and resources.

The Foundation clarifies, because it does not want to give rise to the erroneous idea that nothing is being done in Spain for the reuse of objects, that through the Fund dozens of projects for reintegration, prevention, studies and training are financed to fight against drug trafficking and its consequences. This is confirmed by the Fund's own reports. "But it is not enough, especially for the management of assets, which could be infinitely better," concludes Alonso.

Ana E. Carrillo del Teso, researcher at the University of Salamanca and expert in procedural law, thinks that there are ways to improve the situation, which partly coincide with those requested by Alonso: “The best solution is the proper management of the assets during the judicial process and make use of the possibilities provided by art. 367 bis et seq. of the Criminal Procedure Law, which is the destruction and realization of property in advance, and even its provisional reuse.”

The international perspective of the reuse of seized and confiscated assets that Spain could focus on

International cooperation against organised crime is a priority for most countries. Spain contributes to this task by designing public policies to fight against drug trafficking, which it carries out through the FIIAPP (International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies), in collaboration with the International Italian-Latin American Organisation (IILA).

There are also two European directives, one from 2014 and another from 2024, which dictate some of the policies that countries must implement. They place special emphasis on improving the social reuse systems of confiscated goods.

In response to the request made by some entities such as the Galician Foundation against Drug Trafficking to promote the transfer of goods and not only prioritize their monetization, Borja Díaz, director of FIIAPP, who attends Maldita.es by video call, establishes some aspects of the Fund: “Millions of euros are allocated to programs, but in some cases goods such as boats or helicopters are also given to ministries, the Anti-drug Prosecutor or the Tax Agency.

Massimo Meccheri, a FIIAPP technician, who also participates in the video call with Maldita.es, gives his opinion, without underestimating what Díaz said: “I believe that in Spain more could be done in the direct allocation of these assets to regions and municipalities and attract social projects in the territories with them.”

Meccheri comments on the Italian experience, which is what boosted a good part of the spirit of the European directive of 2024. While in Spain the priority is to monetize and finance prevention and reintegration projects, in Italy the main thing has been, for decades, the direct transfer of the properties and assets of organised crime to local communities.

The difference, explains Meccheri, would be that the experience of both countries is different. “This need to compensate society perhaps occurs in countries where this problem has been stronger. However, this does not mean that it would not be worth doing so. Yes, it would be worth it because here too drug trafficking is a strong phenomenon in some territories,” concludes Meccheri.

Only nine police officers and Civil Guard to locate the assets: the need to provide more resources

One of the practices that criminals do with the assets (cars, boats, cash, jewellery, etc.) they obtain from their crimes is to hide them and even transfer them to another country, with another jurisdiction. This, for Daniel Rodríguez Horcajo, Associate Professor of Criminal Law at the Autonomous University of Madrid, is part of the basic methodologies of organised crime. “It is first-class criminality,” Rodríguez ironically says.

The jurist emphasises that the legal tools for confiscation are sufficiently developed for it to be effective: “The important thing is that we have taken it out of their hands, that we have taken away the candy linked to the crime.”

But to get to that point, the location and recovery of the assets that criminals hide in Spain or abroad needs to work. In Spain, the Office for the Recovery and Management of Assets (ORGA, acronym in Spanish) was created in 2014 in response to a directive issued by the EU, which required the creation of these offices in each partner country. They were intended to be a Justice tool to search for, locate and ultimately seize the assets of organised crime.

However, on its tenth anniversary, Rodríguez points out that in this regard the results are disappointing. “In the statistics of the ORGA, the value of the assets seized, the amounts are negligible,” says Rodríguez. Between 2014 and 2022, according to the latest report prepared by the ORGA, the accumulated amount since its inception amounts to 102.9 million euros, although the first years were dedicated to legally building the organisation.

Maldita.es has tried to contact the ORGA on several occasions through different methods of contact without getting a response. The purpose was to ask how many staff the office currently has to track and locate the assets of organised crime.

The latest available data is from the 2019 report. The total number of police officers and Civil Guard assigned to the ORGA to locate and recover assets, according to that document, is nine people, in addition to another three from the National State Administration. Twelve people to investigate where criminals hide assets in Spain and abroad. Daniel Rodríguez Horcajo is clear: “I understand that it is very easy to complain about this and say that things are not working, but at least it should not be due to negligence.”

Ana E. Carrillo del Teso points out that to evaluate the Office's action it is advisable to take into account its circumstances: “The ORGA has 9 years of experience, but it is difficult to evaluate its performance, because it has been subjected to a multitude of administrative changes and, since its beginning, it was not given sufficient human or material resources for its function.”

From crime to community: the social reuse of confiscated assets in Italy, Spain and Romania

This report is part of a cross-border investigation carried out by Lavialibera (Italy), Scena9 (Romania) y Maldita.es (Spain). This project explores the social reuse of confiscated assets in the three countries highlighting its impact, challenges and possible solutions.

We have analyzed, in four features, the shared problem of the lack of solutions to throw back to society the confiscated assets related to drug trafficking in Spain, Romania and Italy. We also and we talk Hemos analizado en profundidad, en cuatro reportajes, el problema compartido de la falta de soluciones para revertir a la sociedad los bienes decomisados al narcotráfico en España, Italia y Rumanía. We also focus on the situation in Spain and speak to associations that manage drug trafficking-assets and their impact on local communities.

This investigation has been developed with the support of Journalismfund Europe.

Primera fecha de publicación de este artículo: 30/09/2024