Police uncovered a plastic-lined “torture chamber” equipped with pliers and hammers at a home on Spain’s Costa del Sol after a bloodied man fled the property shouting: “They want to kill us.”
Officers were called to the house in Estepona on September 5 after a woman contacted emergency services, fearing her partner was in danger.
When police arrived, a Moroccan man came out of the property covered in blood. He repeatedly told them: “They want to kill us! They want to kill us!”
Additional officers were sent to the scene before police entered the house, where they discovered a sinister room apparently used by gang members to torture and assault victims.
A source close to the judicial investigation told Spanish outlet El Español: “There was a room lined with plastic sheeting. It was a torture room because it had tools like pliers and hammers.”
A second man, a Spanish national, was found tied to a chair and covered in blood. Police also seized two AK-47 assault rifles and several handguns from the property.
Photographs taken inside the house showed plastic covering the chair and walls, apparently allowing blood to be wiped away without leaving evidence.
The Moroccan man who escaped was the partner of the woman who alerted police.
Pictured: A plastic-covered chair inside the “torture chamber” dismantled by police in Estepona
He had told his girlfriend he was going to the property for a work meeting and instructed her to call police if she did not hear from him within 20 minutes.
When 40 minutes passed without any contact, the woman called the authorities.
Both men were found naked, visibly injured and covered in blood when officers rescued them.
Investigators are examining whether the alleged torture was connected to a criminal settling of scores.
Seven Georgian nationals believed to have links to the property have been arrested. Police are continuing to search for other suspects connected to the gang.
The Costa del Sol, home to tourist destinations including Marbella, Estepona and Fuengirola, has become an international base for organised crime.
British expats living in the region have voiced growing concern about safety following a sharp rise in gang-related violence.
More than 100 mafia groups are reportedly active along the 90-mile stretch of coastline.
The popular holiday destination has long served as a centre for organised crime operations, in part because of its strategic position as a gateway for hashish and weapons from Africa and cocaine from South America.
Residents and expats say increasingly brazen criminals are “tarnishing” the image of the resort region.
Last year, a man was shot dead in front of tourists at the luxury resort of Puerto Banus.
The 25-year-old victim was gunned down from close range in broad daylight as he sat on a cafe terrace.
Footage from CCTV cameras appears to show the gunman with a baseball cap on but disguised as a tourist, approaching his target and opening fire and continuing to shoot him as he lay motionless on the ground.
The injured man was rushed to the nearby Costa del Sol Hospital, where he later died from his injuries on October 3.
And in 2024, a Liverpudlian was gunned down in the middle of the street in Mijas.
The murder happened on a street called Don Jose de Orbaneja Street, where there is a well-known tennis and padel tennis club called Club del Sol, as well as a neighbouring holiday resort called Finca Naundrup, which has sports facilities.
Spain’s Costa del Sol has been ravaged by organised crime in recent years. File image: Marbella Marina
Locals told cops they had heard between eight and 10 shots being fired.
Two days later, a bound body of a man was found dumped in a ravine, also in Mijas, although authorities believe he had been dead for several days.
The corpse was found with a hood ‘over the head or next to it’ and had been partially burned, suggesting he had been tortured before he was killed. It is not yet confirmed whether the two cases are linked.
A week earlier, a man was shot in the shoulder outside a nightclub in Marbella before the attackers fled the scene in a car. That same night, a man was stabbed in the stomach in another Marbella venue.
Hours later, a chiringuito in Torremolinos was burned to the ground in a suspected arson attack.
In June last year, 50 people were arrested as four tonnes of cocaine were seized in a major operation.
Spain’s largest police union last year claimed the country had lost control in its war against drug traffickers after an officer was seriously injured in a gun battle with narcos in Sevilla.
The shootout last November happened when National Police officers attempted to intercept a drug shipment inside an industrial warehouse in Isla Mayor, south of Sevilla, a city hugely popular with British tourists.
According to police sources, the traffickers opened fire with assault rifles, including AK-47s, as cops tried to enter.
One officer, a member of the elite Greco Tartesos anti-narcotics unit, was shot in the stomach and leg. He underwent surgery and remains in the hospital.
Spanish media said police seized 700kg of hashish and recovered two vehicles.
It came just days after dramatic footage showed suspected drug smugglers in a boat being handed several containers of gasoline by others in two smaller vessels in Cardiz.
A high speed boat chase involving cops and suspected drug gangs in Spain. The country’s largest police union says it is losing the war with narcos
Police using helicopters to prevent people in Spain from stealing seized drugs. Spain has grappled with violence from organised drug gangs in recent times
Cops shared the footage and wrote: ‘Drug traffickers unloading their cargo in broad daylight, with complete impunity.
‘Warning: Either they give us the resources to combat this crime, or this area of Spain will be taken over by drug traffickers.’
The statement continued: ‘They murder police officers with powerful speedboats, they shoot at us with military-grade weapons, they have better resources.’
In the aftermath of the shooting, Spain’s top National Police union, Jupol, called for the immediate resignation of the interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, accusing him of abandoning officers and allowing criminal gangs to thrive.
In a blistering statement, Jupol said: ‘The narco roams freely in Spain; the State has lost control in the fight against the narcos and our police officers are unprotected. Marlaska is the main person responsible for this failure and must resign immediately.
The union described the shooting as ‘definitive proof of the failure’ of the government’s Special Security Plan for the Campo de Gibraltar, claiming it ‘has only served to hide the Government’s inaction while drug traffickers operate freely in Spain.’
