Five civilian rangers were injured, four by gunfire and one by a fall, after shots were fired at police during an anti-drug operation in a chalet in the El Moralet area of Alicante. The Civil Guard planned to search the residence shortly before seven in the morning. The arrested man and his wife were detained, and relatives said the 73-year-old man, who was slightly wounded in the shoulder, believed intruders were burglars and opened fire with a shotgun. He had legally owned the weapon, according to one of his children.
The Civil Guard operation targeting cannabis cultivation and distribution has thus far resulted in six arrests and included searches at three houses in Torrellano, San Vicente, and another property in El Moralet where various drugs, cannabis buds, and plants were found.
The El Moralet chalet, the scene of the clash, had been the site of a separate explosion in November 2011 at an artisanal pharmaceutical facility within a warehouse on the property. In that incident, authorities seized 50 kilos of marijuana, and the man’s son, who later alleged his father, was arrested alongside another person injured by severe burns from the blast.
A person involved reportedly barricaded himself with a shotgun for about an hour. He and his wife were detained by the Civil Guard. One of his sons, identified by the Civil Guard as a principal target of the operation and who had not slept at home the night before, was also arrested after presenting at the scene. The mother had tried to contact the San Vicente del Raspeig barracks, but her calls went unanswered, according to statements from the detained couple to the media.
The couple said the woman told them that officers knocked on the door and identified themselves as Civil Guard, but fear—exacerbated by a prior robbery at a relative’s home—made them think they were facing intruders. The head of the family reportedly grabbed a shotgun and began firing as the agents approached the property. The couple then drove toward the scene and, upon seeing the officers, directed them to come out of hiding, explaining that they were Civil Guard members.
Before dawn, agents from the Alicante Command’s Citizen Security Unit (USECIC), an operational group focused on forceful entry and ensuring the safety of occupants, surrounded one of the two chalets. They knocked repeatedly and announced themselves as Civil Guard, but according to witnesses, no response was received.
“Shotgun fire”
The agents believed the main target and his father were inside, and when the door began to open, the father reportedly opened fire on the officers with a shotgun. The officers were forced to retreat while returning fire, and the shots came through the windows as they withdrew. Four agents were wounded by bullets, and a fifth was hurt in a fall while backing away from the exchange.
In the aftermath, firefighters and police quickly began to secure the area. The Civil Guard later concluded that the shooter and his wife had been detained, and one of the couple’s children was brought in for questioning as the investigation progressed. Multiple shotguns and other paraphernalia were described by sources close to the event as part of the intervention.
“Many shots were fired”
Suddenly, gunfire re-erupted, prompting the Civil Guard to believe the shooter had been killed during the confrontation. The area remained cordoned off by the San Vicente Civil Guard with reinforcement from several Alicante Local Police patrols. A report indicated that an injured person from the scene had been taken to Alicante General Hospital. Fortunately, none of the officers sustained life-threatening injuries; the most serious wound was a gunshot to the arm, while others suffered injuries from bullet deflection or the fall during retreat.
Meanwhile, the shooter and his wife were transferred to the San Vicente barracks, and one of their three children who lived with them was detained. He remained at the barracks through the afternoon during a continuation of searches carried out with the involvement of a police department attorney and the Ministry of Justice. Authorities say the operation involved multiple shotguns and other equipment.
“Shipping to Ireland”
The operation, dubbed the “Sarpa operation,” began at the start of the year as the San Vicente del Raspeig Civil Guard field investigation progressed. On Tuesday the 22nd, authorities completed the exploitation phase after detecting a suspicious parcel shipment from Alicante to Ireland, identified as a key destination.
The Police Department obtained authorization from Education Court No. 1 in Alicante to inspect the Alicante-based firm, open the package, and discover a 50-liter thermos containing three and a half kilos of marijuana buds, divided into 27 small, pressed, vacuumed packets. Following this seizure, the court allowed entries and searches at four addresses associated with the main targets: one in Torrellano, another in San Vicente del Raspeig, and two in the El Moralet area of Alicante.
The shooting location is a two-story, roughly 80-square-meter single-family home with several outbuildings, situated on a plot of about 2,000 square meters.
The Civil Guards Association (AEGC) later stated that the El Moralet incident underscored the need to reform how officers perceive threats and to equip and train guards in first aid. The association noted that comrades at the scene were the ones who rendered first aid to injured officers within the hot zone, and they have long called for universal first-aid training for all agents, emphasizing that attacks against officers must not go unpunished. The AEGC also highlighted that improvements in training and preparedness are essential to reduce harm in such operations. [Source attribution: Civil Guard communications and AEGC statements]