• The government delegate in Cantabria and the provincial deputy head of Traffic have delivered this material to the mayor of Piélagos, Carlos Caramés, in an event held after the Local Security Board

The Provincial Traffic Headquarters of Cantabria, attached to the General Traffic Directorate (DGT) of the Ministry of the Interior, has given the Local Police of Piélagos 50 kits to perform drug tests on drivers.

The government delegate in Cantabria, Pedro Casares, and the provincial deputy head of Traffic, Nuria Colsa, have delivered the material to the mayor of Piélagos, Carlos Caramés, in an event held this Tuesday in the City Hall after the meeting of the Local Security Board.

Casares has highlighted that these 50 drug test kits reinforce the work on detection of substances by the Local Police. “Shared effort and collaboration between administrations is the best way to strengthen road safety and prevention,” he said.

This delivery of kits is part of the collaboration agreements maintained by the DGT with the municipalities in which there are local police, to which it provides equipment and material to achieve greater effectiveness and guarantee road safety, such as vehicles, ethylmeters and radars.

The kits facilitate the possibility of detecting and supporting a positive for drugs, detecting up to five substances by means of a salivary sample that is subsequently analyzed in authorized laboratories, guaranteeing the chain of custody.

In addition, in order to prevent drivers who have consumed some psychotropic substance from circulating on the road network, the General Directorate of Traffic carries out several alcohol and drug surveillance campaigns in driving throughout the year, in which the local Piélagos Police actively collaborates, controlling this risk factor that increases the rate of incidence of accidents and the severity of them.

The penalty for driving with the presence of drugs in the body is 1,000 euros and the withdrawal of six points from the driving license. If the presence of drugs in the body influences the driving, it is transferred to the criminal highway and may carry a prison sentence of three to six months, a fine of 6 to 12 months or work for the benefit of the community of 31 to 90 days; and, in any case, deprivation of the right to drive motor vehicles one to four years.

LOCAL SECURITY BOARD

On the other hand, the government delegate in Cantabria and the mayor of Piélagos have chaired the Local Security Board in which a 4.8% decrease in criminal offenses until September has been reported compared to the first nine months of 2024.

In the meeting, in which the head of the Civil Guard of Cantabria, Lieutenant Colonel Julio Postigo, other commanders of the body and the Local Police have also participated, Casares has detailed that the criminal decline in the municipality is

Attributable to conventional crime that has decreased by 22.1% since, on the contrary, cybercrime has increased by 23.6%.

Among the criminal acts that have decreased the most, there has been a drop of 45.6% in robberies with force in homes and establishments, with a specific decrease of 50% in the case of homes and 22.2% in establishments.