The María Wars

COS Guajar Maria PlantationThe struggle between the police forces and the drug gangs that grow and trade marihuana has also become a war between gangs.

Maria, by the way, is the slang for marihuana or in Spanish, marijuana; in other words, Mary Jane as it was known in the American 70s hippy scene. Like much American slang, it comes from Spanish – Los Latinos.

Getting back to the gang wars, the collateral damage are ‘civilians;’ the normal members of the general public, who suffer blackouts when one gang sabotages an illegal link-up to the public, mains electricity used by a rival drug plantation.

Sometimes the cost is greater, like being in the wrong place, at the wrong time and  in the wrong company, as was the case on the 8th of April in Zubia. There was a turf-war shooting with two victims; one was a rival gang member and the other a friend of his who had nothing to do with drugs.
The incident happened in a public park and resulted in the death of the gang member and the friend receiving three bullet wounds, which he managed to recover from.

The gangs destroy each other’s illegal, power hook-ups, resulting in blackouts in areas of the city of Granada. They also supply ‘anonymous tip-offs’ about rival drug plantations and more recently we have the vuelco, which is slang from stealing another gang’s crop, sometimes raiding them disguised as police, complete with police badges and regulation, fluorescent waistcoats.

Editorial comment: the solution? An obvious one: legalise marihuana. The police can use their time for more serious crimes and of course, rip the bottom out of the mafía’s income.

(News: Metropolitan Area, Granada, Andalucia)

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