The Treasury clashes with the Army and reduces the aerial surveillance of drug traffickers to a minimum

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• PABLO HERRAIZ

  Madrid

Monday, 2 November 2020 - 01:48

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• Newspaper library.

  2014: Customs planes will be public again

Return to privatization.

The

planes

have not patrolled the Spanish coasts for a month.

Four

aircraft

dedicated mainly to the fight against drug trafficking are parked at the

with no one to pilot them.

And it seems that it will continue like this.

The reason, as this newspaper has learned, is that the agreement that was in force since 2014 between the

and the

has not been renewed

The Treasury had delegated to the military the tasks of piloting and maintaining the planes, but on October 2 the agreement was finalized and the Tax Agency decided not to renew it.

According to sources from the Tax Agency explained to this newspaper, it has been decided that the service is going to be privatized (again, like 10 years ago), with which it will no longer be operated by the Air Force, and also the C-212 will no longer be used.

In exchange, the same sources explained, other planes belonging to the

Specifically, these are from Fishing and have been unemployed for a long time;

They are also the C-212 model, although in a more modern version than those of Customs Surveillance, the

In this way the rumors that had been ringing for some weeks become reality.

These sources did not detail which private company will be in charge of piloting and maintaining the planes.

This change, which the Treasury assures that it will not cost more money than the current agreement with

nevertheless has a difference: Customs Surveillance has four planes, and Fishing has three.

Therefore, and unless some of the old devices are kept, an airplane is going to be lost.

In addition, the agreement with Pesca implies acquiring new tasks apart from the fight against drug trafficking and smuggling, since fisheries surveillance will be carried out.

And finally, one of the three Fishing planes

so it could take a long time for it to be operational.

According to sources familiar with the case, the agreement with the Air Force was not renewed because the Customs Surveillance planes were increasingly outdated and required a greater investment.

The Air Force asked the Tax Agency for

of the devices and thus avoid anticipating money in an institution with a budget as tight as yours.

But the Tax Agency decided that it preferred not to make that investment in advance, and was also looking for more modern aircraft than its own.

The AEAT explains that the observers who go in these new planes will continue to be Customs Surveillance, as they have been up to now.

In recent years, the almost unique task of the C-212s has been to fight drug trafficking, and to a much lesser extent, smuggling.

The four planes from the Alcantarilla base covered the entire Mediterranean coast of the peninsula and the Balearic Islands and even made incursions across the Atlantic.

From his command, operations have been coordinated with the National Police and the Civil Guard, as well as with security forces from other countries such as Portugal.

During this month of hiatus, it is not that drug trafficking has ceased to be monitored, but surveillance on the high seas has been diminished, because the Civil Guard, for example, patrols the coasts, but not offshore.

This will not be the first time that the Customs Surveillance service has been privatized.

Years ago, the service was privatized by the

joint venture

and the experience was not good.

Two of the six aircraft at that time were discontinued because they were in very poor condition and the price of the flight hour doubled compared to the cost it had with the Air Force.

One of the planes

At present, helicopters also have this service privatized.

As of 2014, the CORA program, the Commission for the Reform of Public Administrations, decided that this privatization had to be reversed and management returned to Defense to save costs.

That is why it was decided that the military of the Air Force would resume their work, which entailed a much lower cost for the Tax Agency.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

• Tax agency

• Civil Guard

• Airbus

• Portugal

• National Police

• Murcia

• Balearics

• Drug trafficking

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