Juan Franco asks his driver to slow down as the car swings on to what is reputed to be one of the most dangerous streets in EuropeHalfway through lunchtime on a warm, grey afternoon, Calle Canarias is quiet.
Apart from the binman sweeping up, there are few signs of life around the modest one- and two-storey houses.
“People expect there to be shootouts here,” says Franco, who has been the mayor of La Línea de la Concepción for almost three years. He gestures towards the fishermen’s homes, a shop, and a bar a little further up. “OK, so it’s not exactly Beverly Hills, but it’s not exactly Medellín, is it?”
Franco doesn’t care for the comparison to the Colombian city once held in thrall by Pablo Escobar, but it is one with which he is sadly familiar.
Over the past few years – and the past 12 months in particular – La Línea, which sprawls in the shadow of the Rock of Gibraltar, has acquired an unenviable reputation as Spain’s most troubled town.
The source of its infamy lies the other side of Calle Canarias, along the 7.5-mile (12km) stretch of beach from where, on a clear day, you can make out the Moroccan coast. Last year, police seized 145,372kg of hashish in the region and 11,785kg of cocaine.
Read more:
https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/04/spain-la-linea-drug-
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