south african married to spanish national

I'm a south african (man) married to a spanish (lady). We have been married for 3 yrs, and have recently decided to settle in spain. We have a libro de familia and I was allowed entry on a reagrupacion familiar visa or family reunification visa. I attempted to register at a police station in alicante, to get the ball rolling for aquiring a work permit and a resident permit, only to be told that neither my libro de familia or the visa mean anything to them, and that there is all sorts of buerocratic nonsense that needs to take place first. I had assumed that the fact that we had been married for 3yrs was enough for them to grant me the permits, obviously not.....
My question is this:
What do I need to do to get the work permit and resident permit as quickly as possible?
Any help or advice would be much appreciated. need to work asap
thanks, tomox