POLICE CORRUPTION SHAME: Five officers jailed for selling drugs on the Costa del Sol

FIVE Costa del Sol Local Police officers have been jailed for selling drugs after seizing them from traffickers.

The men – all stationed in holidaymaker hotspot Mijas – reportedly stole classified information to track down criminals before launching a series of unauthorised raids using official cars, badges, uniforms and weapons.

But the culprits were allowed to escape during the swoops, after which the crooked officers loaded any drugs they could find into their cars, knowing that if they were caught by colleagues they could easily justify being in possession of the loot.

One of the five – who was on long-term sick leave – would then use his contacts ‘from the drugs underworld’ to sell the narcotics on.

A sixth individual who was not employed by the police was also convicted after he agreed to stash drugs at his home, with detectives finding 162 kilos of hashish there during a probe.

It comes after the Spanish Supreme Court overturned an earlier decision by Malaga’s Provincial Court, which acquitted the men after finding that wiretaps used in the investigation were ‘invalid.’

They must now serve prison sentences ranging from three-and-a-half to five years and have been banned from police duty for 20 years.

The sentences were delivered in the provincial court, where a judge described the men’s crimes as “unjustifiable” since they had a “duty to serve the public with loyalty and integrity, fight crime, not act as lowly criminals selling drugs using their uniforms, weapons and cars.”

An official from Mijas Council criticised the “social alarm” caused by the “endemic police corruption.”