There have been a number of recent high-profile operations against drugs trafficking, with the Guardia Civil and National Police notching up major successes.
The latest concerns a group of Britons and Spaniards who were behind the sale of cocaine in Magalluf. Led by the Guardia's criminal police in Llucmajor, various properties near to Punta Ballena and in Palma were raided on Friday. Several packages of cocaine, weighing up to five kilos and said to be of exceptional purity, were found. Also seized were four kilos of cutting substance along with ten phones and some 6,500 euros cash.
The operation continued well into the afternoon on Friday. The operation had started in the early hours when one of the gang left an apartment in calle Bernat Amer in Palma and took a taxi to Magalluf, carrying two kilos of cocaine. He was arrested by Guardia officers when he arrived. Four people in all have so far been arrested, though this number is expected to rise to ten.
The gang is said to have arrived in Magalluf in March and to have connections to a drugs organisation in Galicia which was supplying cocaine from South America. The drugs had been coming into Majorca on private yachts, with stops also in Ibiza. Sources suspect that the gang was involved in distribution of cocaine in Sant Antoni as well.
It is also said that the gang had taken control of all trafficking in Punta Ballena and that its activities weren't always discreet. Several residents in the Edificio Porto Cristo in Avenida s'Olivera had suspected or known what tenants arrested there on Friday were involved in. One said: "Many people knew what was going on, and there was a lot of fear. I have two children and I was terrified that they might be sold drugs."
The Guardia launched the investigation into the gang two months ago, with a focus of attention having been on pushing in Punta Ballena by "tiqueteros" (PRs), who were offering tickets to clubs and bars and the cocaine as well. A gram had been selling for sixty euros.