Bloody Clan Clash in Spanish Resort Town
Masked attackers on motorcycles opened fire in Isla Cristina, police suspect a drug clan settling of scores. Sources disagree on the identities of the victims.
Masked attackers on motorcycles opened fire in Isla Cristina, police suspect a drug clan settling of scores. Sources disagree on the identities of the victims.
In the Spanish resort town of Isla Cristina, located on the Costa de la Luz coast near the Portuguese border, a shooting occurred on Sunday evening around 10 PM, killing three people and wounding two others. Police confirmed that the attackers-according to some sources, two masked men on motorcycles, and according to others, a single armed man with a long-barreled weapon-opened fire on a group of people in a public area in the El Rocio neighborhood.
According to a report from Kurir, among the dead are a pregnant woman and her child, or rather, a mother, her minor son, and his maternal grandmother. However, Reuters and the Straits Times report different identities of the victims: according to them, the deceased are the mother-in-law (62 years old) and pregnant sister (39 years old) of the suspected clan leader known as "El Baba," as well as a 16-year-old boy who is not related to the family. Sources therefore disagree on the exact identities of the victims.
The Civil Guard (Spain's gendarmerie police) has launched a major security operation and a manhunt for the perpetrators, and the initial results of the investigation point to a settling of scores between rival drug trafficking clans. "Yesterday at around 10 PM, in the town of Isla Cristina, individuals on a motorcycle opened fire on several people who were in a public place, resulting in three deaths and two injuries, one of whom is in serious condition," police said in a statement carried by Kurir.
The Straits Times adds that the 18-year-old nephew of the suspected clan leader was seriously wounded, while another person sustained minor injuries. Police have not released the age or gender of the person with minor injuries. The bodies of the victims remained on the street until a judge authorized their transfer to the Institute of Forensic Medicine in the provincial capital, Huelva, where autopsies will be performed.
The incident is linked to a previous shooting that occurred in September 2024 in Huelva, in which one person was killed and two were wounded. The suspect in that crime, known as El Baba, was arrested several weeks later in northern Spain, in the city of Gijón, and is in pretrial detention until the start of his trial. According to local media, several of his relatives, allegedly including last night's victims, moved from the provincial capital to Isla Cristina after that crime.
The Baba clan, as it is called, is in a feud with rival families such as the Moriña clan, and violence between them escalated precisely after the deadly shooting in 2024. So far, no one has been arrested in connection with the latest attack, and police have called on citizens to provide any information confidentially.
Isla Cristina is one of the most important fishing centers in southern Spain, known for its fine sandy beaches. It is located 7.5 kilometers (4.7 miles) from the border with Portugal, and the nearest airports are Faro in the Portuguese Algarve, about 40 miles away, and Seville, about 80 miles away. Although there is no direct connection to Croatia, such incidents in popular tourist destinations can also worry Croatian tourists vacationing in Spain.
