Costa crackdown
Spain’s elite crime force target Salford gangs committing murder in the Med
ELITE cops have been drafted in to stop Salford gang wars spreading to the Costa del Sol.
The move follows the drive-by murder of ex-pat Peter Williamson as he parked his Audi outside his villa near Malaga.
Two Brits were arrested over the shooting – said to be part of a six-year feud between Salford drug gangs.
Now Spanish police have called in their paramilitary-style GEO.
Members of the crack unit – short for Special Group for Operations – wear balaclavas and carry Glock pistols and Heckler & Koch machine guns.
A police source said the team was brought in after intelligence from National Crime Agency spies in Spain.
He said: “The men fighting this war are Premier League criminals who have access to firearms and are ready to kill.
“They are every bit as dangerous as your major international crime groups in Spain, like the Moroccans, the Russians and the
Dutch. The Spanish police will do anything to stop the violence spreading from Salford.
“They will only call in the GEO to thwart terrorists or serious criminals.”
Last month, the unit stormed a house on an upmarket estate near Murcia, South East Spain, to arrest a British suspect in Williamson’s murder. Police said they seized nearly 50lb of cannabis resin from the house, which had been used to prepare it for shipping.
A second man was arrested in the UK. Detectives say the pair flew to Barcelona and hired a car to drive south to the Costa del Sol to kill Williamson.
Williamson, 39, known as “Snaggle” because of his teeth, was shot five times in Riviera del Sol after returning home from the gym in November.
His mother, who lives in the same resort, desperately tried to save him.
Williamson’s killing was one of 25 murders on the Costa del Sol last year. Most are thought to be drug-related.
The dad of two from Salford was said to have links to several of the city’s organised crime figures including so-called “Mr Big”, Paul Massey.
In July 2015, a hitman machinegunned Massey, 55, as he got out of his car outside his house – sparking the gangland war.