Spanish cops discover plastic-lined 'narco torture chamber' with pliers and hammers in Costa del Sol tourist town after blood-soaked man escaped screaming 'they want to kill us'

Police discovered a plastic-lined 'torture chamber' decked out with pliers and hammers in a Costa del Sol home after a man escaped screaming: 'They want to kill us.' Cops arrived at the property in Estepona on September 5 after a woman alerted emergency services that her partner may be in danger. When officers entered the house, a Moroccan man emerged covered in blood, telling police, 'They want to kill us!' 'They want to kill us!'Officers called for reinforcements before entering the home and unveiled a sinister room where gang members appeared to be carrying out torture and abuse. Sources close to a judicial investigation told Spanish news outlet El Español: 'There was a room lined with plastic sheeting. It was a torture room because it had tools like pliers and hammers.'Another man - a Spanish national - was found tied up to a chair and covered in blood, while cops seized two AK-47 assault rifles and several handguns. Images from inside the house show a chair and walls covered in plastic so that blood could be removed without leaving any evidence behind. The Moroccan man who fled the property was the partner of the woman who raised the alarm. Pictured: A chair covered in plastic inside a 'torture chamber' which was dismantled by police in Estepona He had told his girlfriend he was going to a house for a work meeting but told her to call the police if she didn't hear from him within 20 minutes. After 40 minutes passed without any contact, the woman called the police. Both men had visible injuries and were naked and covered in blood when rescued.Police are investigating whether they were being tortured because of a settling of scores. Seven Georgian nationals believed to be linked with the property have been arrested, while cops continue to search for any other suspects linked to the gang. Spain's Costa del Sol - which covers tourist hotspots like Marbella, Estepona and Fuengirola - has emerged as a global hub for organised crime. British expats living in the area have been vocal about their anxieties over living on the Costa del Sol following a massive surge of gang violence. More than 100 mafia groups are said to be operating along the 90-mile stretch of coastline. The holiday hotspot has long been a centre of operations for organised crime, thanks to its strategic location as the first port of call for hashish and arms from Africa, and cocaine from South America.Expats have said they are fed up with increasingly brazen thugs who are 'tarnishing' the resort's image. Last year, a man was shot dead in the upmarket resort of Puerto Banus in front of tourists. The 25-year-old victim was gunned down from close range in broad daylight as he sat on a cafe terrace. Footage from CCTV cameras appears to show the gunman with a baseball cap on but disguised as a tourist, approaching his target and opening fire and continuing to shoot him as he lay motionless on the ground.The injured man was rushed to the nearby Costa del Sol Hospital, where he later died from his injuries on October 3. And in 2024, a Liverpudlian was gunned down in the middle of the street in Mijas. The murder happened on a street called Don Jose de Orbaneja Street, where there is a well-known tennis and padel tennis club called Club del Sol, as well as a neighbouring holiday resort called Finca Naundrup, which has sports facilities. Locals told cops they had heard between eight and 10 shots being fired. Two days later, a bound body of a man was found dumped in a ravine, also in Mijas, although authorities believe he had been dead for several days.The corpse was found with a hood 'over the head or next to it' and had been partially burned, suggesting he had been tortured before he was killed. It is not yet confirmed whether the two cases are linked.A week earlier, a man was shot in the shoulder outside a nightclub in Marbella before the attackers fled the scene in a car. That same night, a man was stabbed in the stomach in another Marbella venue.Hours later, a chiringuito in Torremolinos was burned to the ground in a suspected arson attack. In June last year, 50 people were arrested as four tonnes of cocaine were seized in a major operation.Spain's largest police union last year claimed the country had lost control in its war against drug traffickers after an officer was seriously injured in a gun battle with narcos in Sevilla. The shootout last November happened when National Police officers attempted to intercept a drug shipment inside an industrial warehouse in Isla Mayor, south of Sevilla, a city hugely popular with British tourists.According to police sources, the traffickers opened fire with assault rifles, including AK-47s, as cops tried to enter. One officer, a member of the elite Greco Tartesos anti-narcotics unit, was shot in the stomach and leg. He underwent surgery and remains in the hospital. Spanish media said police seized 700kg of hashish and recovered two vehicles. It came just days after dramatic footage showed suspected drug smugglers in a boat being handed several containers of gasoline by others in two smaller vessels in Cardiz. Cops shared the footage and wrote: 'Drug traffickers unloading their cargo in broad daylight, with complete impunity.'Warning: Either they give us the resources to combat this crime, or this area of Spain will be taken over by drug traffickers.' The statement continued: 'They murder police officers with powerful speedboats, they shoot at us with military-grade weapons, they have better resources.'In the aftermath of the shooting, Spain's top National Police union, Jupol, called for the immediate resignation of the interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, accusing him of abandoning officers and allowing criminal gangs to thrive.In a blistering statement, Jupol said: 'The narco roams freely in Spain; the State has lost control in the fight against the narcos and our police officers are unprotected. Marlaska is the main person responsible for this failure and must resign immediately.The union described the shooting as 'definitive proof of the failure' of the government's Special Security Plan for the Campo de Gibraltar, claiming it 'has only served to hide the Government's inaction while drug traffickers operate freely in Spain.'