The Civil Guard investigates the disappearance of two young people after embarking to supply gasoline to drug boats in Almería

The Civil Guard is investigating the disappearance of two young people in Balerma (El Ejido, Almería) of whom there has been no trace since last February 25.

They are Khaled Khayati, 32, and Adil Lamsiyah, 20. The latter's family claims that that day they left aboard a boat loaded with gasoline drums to, supposedly, supply another boat dedicated to drug trafficking.

In the complaint, his mother believes that the boat sank.

“We are devastated,” says Adil's uncle, Jalal Benaissa, who these days serves as spokesperson for the family and who is waiting for the investigation to obtain some result.

There is a third young man, whose identity is unknown, who is also considered missing, although the agents have no formal record of this because there is no report.

After finishing his studies, Adil worked as a lifeguard last summer and this winter he started working in a fruit and vegetable warehouse near Balerma—a district of El Ejido that has about 4,500 inhabitants—where he lives with his family.

His contract ended when agricultural production dropped and the company no longer needed him.

On February 25, he sent his girlfriend, through WhatsApp, a video of a single viewing in which she told him that she was going to be away for a few days.

He didn't specify why or where.

Days later, last Friday, March 1, several local residents notified his mother that the young man had disappeared.

And they told him that everything had happened after he received a succulent offer to transport the gasoline to the high seas in exchange for a lot of money.

Adil Lamsiyah Benaissa (left) and Khaled Khayati.

Immediately afterwards, the woman went to the Civil Guard to file a complaint, to which EL PAÍS has had access.

“She was possibly piloting a petaquera boat,” says the document, where the woman expresses that she believes that the reason for the disappearance is the “sinking of the boat.”

Later, relatives of Khaled Khayati – the 32-year-old man who was supposedly with Adil Lamsiyah on the same boat – traveled from France to denounce the situation.

It is believed that there is a third missing person, but that he has no family in the area and that is why the Civil Guard has no official knowledge.

Adil Lamsiyah's mother and uncle began to collect more information “from anonymous sources” related to drug trafficking to try to provide more information about the place from which the boat in which the boy was traveling departed or its destination.

They later communicated everything to the Civil Guard.

Since then they have been waiting for results.

“Adil had never dedicated himself to that activity, he has no experience.

That is why we believe that he jumped into the sea in the middle of a storm.

Someone with more knowledge would not have come out," says Benaissa, the family spokesperson, who denounces that those responsible for the criminal groups "take advantage of the innocence of the kids, convince them with money and tell them to risk it and kill themselves while they "They stay at home controlling everything."

Sources from the Civil Guard explain that an investigation has been opened to try to clarify the circumstances of a disappearance that they consider voluntary, since "there are no circumstances to think that it is involuntary or forced."

The agents continue to collect information and hope to be able to analyze some technological means - whether it be the mobile phone of one of the young people and a GPS - to try to locate the area through which the boat was traveling.

“There are two big problems,” they explain from the Civil Guard.

“The first is that several days passed from the disappearance to the report, which greatly complicates the case.

The second is the weather conditions, which have not allowed any type of search to be carried out,” they emphasize.

The researchers also analyze the winds that have hit the Almeria coast these days and, also, the tides.

“Once it is done, we will proceed to carry out a more specific search,” explain the same sources, who add that a warning has been issued to sailors so that any ship passing along the Almeria coast should take extreme caution and maintain vigilance in case it finds to the boat in which the drifting kids were traveling or some other clue that may help in their location.

Both the National Center for Missing Persons of the Ministry of the Interior and the SOS Missing Persons association have published the photograph and information of both Adil Lamsiyah and Khaled Khayati.

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