SHARE
COPY LINK

CRIME

What you need to know about hiring a private detective in Spain

The number of private detectives in Spain has increased by a whopping 80 per cent in the past decade. Here's what you need to know about hiring one.

What you need to know about hiring a private detective in Spain
The number of private detectives in Spain has increased by 80 per cent in the past decade. Photo: Pixabay

How many private detectives are there in Spain?

The number of private detectives has increased by 80 per cent in the past decade, from 2.452 in 2010 to 4.391 in 2020, according to data from the Interior Ministry.

The number of private detective offices, however, has decreased since 2015. There are currently 1.238 across the country.

How does someone become a private detective?

The Interior Ministry keeps a census of private detectives, who must possess a Professional Identity Card which is issued by the Cuerpo Nacional de Policía, Spain’s national police force. This is the official document that allows them to work as private detectives.

In order to get one of these cards, they need to have passed private investigation training course recognised by the Ministry of Interior.

There are also several other requirements. Applicants must not have been sanctioned in the previous two years for a serious or very serious infraction in matters of private security, or been sentenced for illegitimate interference in the right of honour, personal and family privacy or violated the secrecy of communications or other fundamental rights in the five years.

What can they investigate?

Although the investigations carried out by private detectives range from private parties to personal relationships, certain limits are established in article 48 of the private security law. 

For example, they cannot investigate crimes that can be prosecuted by the authorities. They have the obligation of reporting anything that could be considered illegal, and must prove any information or material that they may have obtained up to that point.

All investigations carried out by private detectives must appear in the official register of the Central Unit of Private Security of the Police (Central de Seguridad Privada de la Policía), which is available to the judicial authorities.

Are they required to collaborate with the police?

Private detectives have the obligation of collaborating with the security forces. Judicial authorities can request reports, and any documents, graphic and bibliographic evidence.

If detectives discover crimes that could be prosecuted, they must immediately make any information available to the authorities.

What kinds of things do they usually investigate?

Aside from occasionally being hired by politicians, private detectives have been busy in the past couple of years investigating issues related to the pandemic: from illegal parties in Ibiza to employees lying about getting Covid-19 in order to take sick leave.

In 2019, a town near Salamanca even hired private detectives to punish those who failed to clean up after their dogs on the street.

How much does it cost?

Private detectives tend to charge per hour. Rates vary between €30 and €60 per hour on a working day. Weekends or out of work hours can go up to €50 or €80 per hour. You will also have to take into account any expenses required during the investigation.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

CRIME

Shootings, raids and partying: How Spain’s Costa del Crime is thriving

Around 120 international criminal gangs from Ireland, Italy, Russia, the Netherlands, England and numerous other countries use the Costa del Sol city of Marbella as their centre of operations, with shootings and raids becoming all too common in recent years.

Shootings, raids and partying: How Spain's Costa del Crime is thriving

Heavily armed police officers wearing face masks entered a luxury home at daybreak last week in Spain’s southern Costa del Sol to arrest a 40-year-old suspected drug trafficker.

He is believed to be part of a major cocaine cartel operating inside Europe and beyond, and his arrest was part of the culmination of a three-year operation involving law enforcement from 10 different countries.

The operation highlighted how the sunny coastal region has become a hub for international criminal groups whose members can blend in easily with their millionaire neighbours from around the world.

In recent years more trigger-happy gangs have moved in, raising alarm in the Mediterranean region, which polished its reputation for glitz in the 1970s when the Saudi royal family began spending their summers in Marbella.

While the Costa del Sol is used for money laundering, it is drug trafficking that generates “reckless delinquency, delinquency with no scruples,” the chief prosecutor in Marbella, Julio Martínez Carazo, told AFP.

When he took up the post in 1991, crime was mainly carried out by Spanish nationals and the seizure of a gun “was an extraordinary thing,” but now officers find automatic weapons, he said.

READ ALSO: Why is Spain Europe’s cocaine gateway?

Spain is the gateway to Europe for North African hashish and South American cocaine, making it attractive to international criminal gangs.

And as the world’s second-most visited country, it is well connected to other destinations, adding to its appeal.

Members of Spanish Guardia Civil, supported by Europol, arrest a man during an operation against drug trafficking in Mijas, near Marbella. (Photo by JORGE GUERRERO / AFP)

‘Scores being settled’

Police in the Costa del Sol have in recent months arrested suspected drug traffickers from Albania, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland and the Netherlands.

But what has really alarmed locals are five shootings this year in Marbella linked to the theft of drugs by rival gangs, including one in March that targeted a popular restaurant frequented by celebrities.

“There are many criminal groups that have a permanent and stable presence on the Costa del Sol and this leads to scores being settled from time to time,” Antonio Martínez Duarte, the head of the national police’s drugs and organised crime unit UDYCO, told AFP.

Local authorities launched “Plan Marbella” in April to try to curb crime by boosting police numbers in the city of around 141,000 people and raiding several famous nightclubs.

Ten people were arrested during the plan’s first month, including some wanted in their home countries.

“It is a recognition by law enforcement that there is a problem here,” former Marbella mayor Pepe Bernal told AFP, adding that the establishment of international criminal groups in the region is causing “great dismay”.

“Before, these people came to Marbella just to spend their money or to enjoy it,” the local opposition councillor said.

The opposition has questioned Marbella’s conservative mayor Angeles Muñoz after her Swedish stepson, Joakim Broberg, was charged with money laundering and drug trafficking in a case pending trial.

Her husband, Swedish businessman Lars Broberg, was also charged but he was removed from the case for health reasons before his death in May 2023. She has denied any wrongdoing.

A man drives a car in Puerto Banus luxury marina and shopping complex in Marbella. (Photo by JORGE GUERRERO / AFP)

‘Luxury goes unnoticed’

Contacted by AFP, Marbella town hall said in a short statement that the city is “an enviable tourist destination in all areas, including security.”

Marbella’s old town, with its cobbled streets and traditional whitewashed houses, has an air of security as does its famous Puerto Banus port, home to shops selling luxury brands and exclusive restaurants and nightclubs.

“In Marbella, if you see a Porsche, a Lamborghini, you don’t think anything of it,” said prosecutor Martínez Carazo. “Luxury goes unnoticed,” and that makes it harder to detect ill-gotten wealth, he added.

After an extradition agreement between Britain and Spain expired in 1978, many British criminals settled in the Costa del Sol, prompting the British press to dub it the “Costa del Crime”.

Among them was Charlie Wilson, one of the perpetrators of the “Great Train Robbery” of 1963 — at the time Britain’s largest robbery. He was murdered in 1990 at his Marbella home.

In the 1980s there “were mafiosos, but no mafia” in the Costa del Sol, said ex-mayor Bernal. Those criminal gang members “were known because they lived well, and they were jet-setters,” he added.

“Now they are not in the limelight, they are not known, but they are here with their organisations. And that’s dangerous”, he said.

READ ALSO: ‘Easiest way to make a living’ – Southern Spain struggles to keep youth out of drug gangs

SHOW COMMENTS