On Thursday, Palma and National Police carried out a major operation against drug dealing in Arenal (Playa de Palma). Fifty officers were involved and nine arrests were made. A Palma court has ordered eight of the nine to prison.
The police dubbed it Operation Container. This was because drugs were being stored in rubbish containers in the vicinity of C. Pare Bartomeu Salvà, popularly known in German as Schinkenstrasse - Calle Jamón in Spanish or Ham Street in English. Those arrested are all Senegalese citizens. Aged between 26 and 58, they were operating as street sellers.
The initial phase of the operation was to determine which of them were merely illegal sellers and those who were also peddling drugs. The nine were identified as being drug dealers.
Officers discovered that drugs were being stored and concealed in rubbish containers. When sales to tourists were arranged, they would go to one of the containers and extract the drugs. They were using hand-made rods to both place packets of drugs in the containers and to take them out quickly so as not to attract attention.
When the arrests were made, police examined containers in the area. Officers seized hashish, a quarter of a kilo of marijuana, 90 bags of cocaine, more than 300 ecstasy pills and six bags of what was suspected to be heroin, as well as Viagra (or similar).