A business involving family clans

Just a few kilometres from the luxury estates where major drug traffickers live are conflictive neighbourhoods where the drugs they import are sold, such as Palma-Palmilla, La Corta and Las Flores, in Malaga city. There, the violence has increased: there have been eight shootings since early December. These involve family clans, who control the small-scale sale of drugs and when one group enters another's territory, tension increases. There is also a difference in attitude, depending on age. "Older people prefer to talk, but the younger ones are more hot-blooded and more likely to take out a weapon and fire it into the air or at a building," says one officer. "There are normally no victims, but these incidents are dangerous."

Other residents live in fear. "Even before the shootings, you can sense the rise in tension. All we can do is lower the blinds on our windows and hope we stay safe till it's over," says one.