Some twenty people were arrested on Wednesday morning during a massive anti-drugs operation launched by the Guardia Civil. Up to sixty properties were raided and searched in the Son Banya shanty town, Son Gotleu and La Soledad. At least half of these raids were in Son Banya.
The operation, which got under way at six in the morning, was led by the organised crime squad and the criminal police based in Algaida. Up to 400 officers were involved in the operation and included, as is usual for operations on this scale, members of elite forces from the mainland.
It was the second part of Operation Ludar - the first was on 22 March - and was directed against certain drugs clans. Among those arrested were the heads of these clans. Sniffer dogs were used in Son Banya, where the Guardia searches continued for most of the morning.
With the first demolitions of properties in Son Banya due to start once Palma town hall is given a new schedule by the courts, the Guardia think that yesterday's operation may mark the end of drug trafficking in the shanty town. There were at least thirty sales points for drugs.