# Thinking of living in La Linea?



## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

We are often asked about this, from people planning to work in Gibraltar. Here's some background info:



> How the drug gangs in Spain’s La Línea are providing work for 3,000 people
> Increasingly violent traffickers are taking control of the city’s neighbourhoods and ruling with impunity, to the rising concern of locals and authorities alike. Last week 20 armed hooded gangsters raided the local hospital to rescue one of their members.


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## Isobella (Oct 16, 2014)

Alcalaina said:


> We are often asked about this, from people planning to work in Gibraltar. Here's some background info:


I have been following the story. They have been intimidating Judges too. One sea front house had installed radar disguised as solar panels to monitor police boats and helicopters.


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## jimenato (Nov 21, 2009)

We were there a couple of weeks back. Had lunch at a WOK and then a nice cup of coffee in a bar run by a young Brit who OH taught guitar some years ago.

It was quite pleasant.

But there are bad bits for sure - some of the town is quite intimidating.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

More bad news from La Linea
*More than 200 La Linea residents reportedly helped suspected drug smuggler escape arrest*

https://www.gbc.gi/news/five-hundred-kilos-cannabis-resin-seized-la-linea


And this from last month
*Masked gang storms Spanish hospital to release arrested drug trafficking suspect*


https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...de-la-concepcion-police-release-a8200826.html


Of course this doesn't mean to say that the whole town is a no. On the other hand, drug trade can undermine a whole town and in Spain it's happened before with the narcos in Galicia in the '80's and 90's. 

Today there was news of the arrest of Tania Varela, the most wanted woman in Europe arrested in Sitges for drug trafficking


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## angkag (Oct 29, 2013)

I get to go to La Linea quite often for football matches, and to drive in and out, it just feels like any scruffy border town. Can't imagine wanting to live there.

I know a lot of people who work in Gibraltar and live in Spain (lots of the kids go to Sotogrande International School), but they all live outside of La Linea in the Alcaidesa-Sotogrande belt.

I'm sure there are people I don't know who live in La Linea to shorten the trip over to Gib each day, but while its a scruffy town, and has known criminal problems, it doesn't feel unsafe wandering around there.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

On Monday two hundred locals came out onto the street and prevented the police from detaining a narco after they found 500 kg of hash in his vehicle. An estimated 3,000 of the town's inhabitants are involved in the drug trade to some degree or other so it's not in their interest to help the police. It's a major source of employment.

There's no doubt it's getting worse but at the moment (apart from the hospital raid earlier this month) the violence is restricted to a few districts. The government have promised to provide more resources.

https://politica.elpais.com/politica/2018/03/26/actualidad/1522076315_450075.html


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