By Humphrey Carter and Jason Moore
The letter to the newspaper from a couple vowing never to return to Magalluf because they felt unsafe prompted a bar owner to come forward and explain what is going on in the resort.
Palma.—Toni has owned the Rose and Crown, just off Punta Ballena, or ‘the strip’, for 38 years and yesterday he told the Bulletin that he has never seen Magalluf so out of control and that the so-called prostitutes, which he said are in fact well organised “muggers”, are frightening tourists away.
“I have complained time and time again to the police, but they tell me that unless they catch the prostitutes in the act of mugging or assaulting someone, they can’t do anything...it’s laughable, it’s like trying to catch a flying bird,” he said.
“I and all the other bar owners watch them turn up for work every night at between 11.20 and 11.30pm, although their real work starts in the early hours when drunken holiday makers start making their way back to their hotels, and they all have their own special patch.
“For example, I have a group which stand right opposite my bar. Another group just down the road on the corner and there’s another group which operates on the other side of the road. It’s organised crime and I’ve watched so many youngsters fall prey to them. I watched one drunken lad have his mobile popped out of his back pocket and he didn’t have a clue what had happened.
“But, try and stand up to these people and they get violent and that is frightening people. They once threatened to torch my bar when I confronted them.
“Time and time again I either have to escort clients back to their hotel, which is just 300 metres up the road, or even call a taxi for them because they are too scared to run the gauntlet of the prostitutes who are just waiting to pounce,” Toni said.