The anti-drug operation Jaque Mate (Checkmate) has ended in Palma with the third and final phase and the balance of 1.3 tons of cocaine seized, the arrest of 64 people, Spanish and Colombian, and the blocking of 148 current accounts and 40 properties, in Mallorca and the mainland, worth 8.8 million euros.
The Guardia Civil has concluded this macro-operation led by Palma’s Court of Instruction number 7, in which 300,000 euros in cash have been seized and the heads of two prominent drug clans in Palma have been arrested: Charly the Moneylender and relatives of Pablo, who is serving a prison sentence for drug trafficking.
Most of the drugs came from Colombia, with some shipments from Brazil.
It entered Europe in containers via Portugal and a large part of it reached Valencia and Barcelona before finally ending up in Mallorca.
In the first phase of this operation, in December 2023, agents discovered 1.3 tonnes of cocaine camouflaged in blocks of Brazilian granite in an industrial warehouse in Cehegín (Murcia), where nine people were arrested, including the head of the Colombian cartel in Spain.
In the second phase, at the end of January this year, 23 searches were carried out and 16 people were arrested in Valencia, Palma and Toledo.
Finally, the last one took place last Wednesday and Thursday in Mallorca, in Palma and in the Mallorcan municipality of Marratxí, where 39 alleged members of this large network of traffickers were arrested.
The chief colonel of the Guardia Civil in the Balearics, Alejandro López Mosquera, congratulated all the agents involved in this “complex” operation on Friday, in terms of the investigation and the deployment of resources used.
The US anti-drug agency DEA and the police forces of Colombia, Brazil and Portugal took part in the operation.
The third phase of the operation involved the deployment of 200 agents, many of them from the mainland, who carried out 60 searches in Palma and Marratí.
In this case, the Guardia Civil seized several kilos of hashish, marijuana, cocaine and crystal meth, as well as 8 marijuana plantations. In addition, 100 bank accounts and 32 properties were blocked.
At the same time, 11 searches were also carried out in Valencia related to the Valencian clan.
The investigators found that those arrested in Mallorca took extreme security measures at the drug sales points, with armoured doors to make it difficult to open them and devices for the rapid destruction of the drugs.
In the Palma neighbourhood of La Soledad, the agents entered the house of Pablo Campos, nicknamed Pablo, which consisted of several houses joined together. From the outside they looked like “shacks” and inside there was a great deal of luxury.
The agents were surprised by the underground tunnel they discovered in Pablo’s house: it was almost 30 metres long, it was not yet finished and its purpose was to serve as an escape route in case of a police search. It also had security cameras on every corner.
Among those under investigation are also the president of the Federation of Gypsy Associations of the Balearics, Carlos Cortés, el Charly, and Joaquín Fernández, el Prestamista, who became popular for his participation in the television programme ‘Gipsy kings’.
The operation has been carried out by the Judicial Police Unit of the Balearic Islands and the Balearic Organised Crime Team of the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Guardia Civil.
Jaque Mate is one of the most important anti-drug operations ever carried out in the Balearic Islands.
The seized drugs remain under heavy guard at the Guardia Civil headquarters in Palma, where they have been exhibited to the media.
This today, 23 detainees, including the main leaders of this drug trafficking network, were brought before the courts in Palma. Some of those initially arrested have been released.