Blood of the Dragon Trees by Nik Morton.
The opening chapter " Bitter and Twisted " ( nicknames given to two of the crime specialists) gives the reader a sickening insight into illegal immigration and people smuggling. Set in Tenerife. The first victim, Rafi, bled to death. Seventeen African illegal immigrants between the ages of eighteen and thirty had just arrived on the island. Rafi was "one of our men" and had been planted amongst the men in order to attempt to crack a major people smuggling ring from the inside. "He felt like a farm animal up for sale-or slaughter." Dramatic irony. His knee cap is shattered, his hand cut off ( "too smooth") and stuck in his mouth as a warning to the police and guardia civil. The action moves to Los Cristianos where we meet Lieutenant Vargas and protagonist Andrew Kirby who works for CITES-Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species such as tigers, leopards, rhinos and walruses. They are carrying out surveillance of forty-four Afric