The operation began early on Wednesday morning and, according to some witnesses, the officers are reported to have made arrests. However, this has not been confirmed by official sources, who state that the investigation is subject to judicial secrecy.

Alejandro has been missing since 3 May 2024, aged just 25. The initial investigations suggested he might have left of his own accord, although his family have always found it hard to believe that he would have gone without even leaving a note.

In an interview with SUR a year ago, Nuria, the woman he was living with due to disagreements with his mother and whom he called ‘aunt’, explained that they reported him missing two days later because that was what they had been advised to do and because they were hoping that at some point he would ring them or walk through the front door.

The last time he was seen, Alejandro was apparently about to go to work on the land, although in the end, it seems, the job didn’t work out. That morning, the young man left home with only the clothes he was wearing. He left without taking either his mobile phone or his ID card with him. According to these relatives, the young man was on his way that day to collect payment for work he had carried out. He was without a mobile phone or his ID card, which, on the face of it, did not fit with a voluntary disappearance.

In March this year, the National Police carried out a large-scale operation in the area in an attempt to locate him. According to information obtained by this newspaper, the operation focused on an area of 31,000 square metres, and the Directorate-General of the Police (DGP) mobilised around thirty officers from various specialist units, deployed from Madrid, supported by officers from Ronda and the Malaga Provincial Police Station.

Specifically, the police mobilised investigators from the Homicide and Missing Persons Unit of the Central UDEV, dogs from the Canine Unit trained to search for human remains, officers from the Forensic Unit and members of the GOIT (Technical Intervention Operations Group), an elite unit specialising in the use of heavy machinery. However, in this instance, the search efforts proved unsuccessful.