The National Police have arrested three men aged 26, 30 and 31, of Senegalese origin, as alleged perpetrators of a crime against public health by selling ‘laughing gas’ to tourists in Playa de Palma.
According to the police force in a press release, group II of the Narcotics unit received a series of reports that nitrous oxide was being sold in the area in balloons.
The police mounted an operation in the early hours of last Friday, ten days after they began investigating the reports.
The police spotted a man who blowing up balloons for a group of tourists three metres from the bag, and then two other people appeared to help the person who was blowing up the balloons with the nitrous oxide.
The police officers approached the men, searched the clothes and backpacks of the accused, and found that in two bags they were carrying six bottles of ‘laughing gas’, nearly 500 balloons and 13 nozzles. For all these reasons, they were arrested.
The National Police have warned that the use of this substance for recreational activities is considered unauthorised, as, among other things, it can cause hallucinations, adverse and irreversible effects on the central nervous system, psychosis, confusion and even death by asphyxiation.