On Friday, a judge in Palma ordered the imprisonment of nine of thirteen people who were arrested on Wednesday following a series of raids in Mallorca linked to the major drugs and money laundering network headed by lawyer Gonzalo Márquez and the leader of the United Tribuns bikers, Stefan Milojevic.
Among the nine was Ramón Orta, the leader of a clan that bears his name. He is notorious for drugs activities not centred on Palma. The raids on Wednesday were on 18 addresses in Cala Rajada, Son Servera, Manacor, Llucmajor and Marratxi as well as in Palma. A combined Guardia Civil and National Police action, the raids were the sixth phase of an operation that has been dubbed 'Enroque Bal/Manso'.
The first phase was in August and resulted in the arrests of Márquez and Milojevic as well as a National Police inspector, Faustino Nogales, who was formerly head of the narcotics group. Those arrests came a month after a 675-kilo cocaine shipment was intercepted in Valencia.
Orta and 16 others were in fact sentenced to a total of 33 and a half years in prison on October 7. This was for the distribution and sale of large quantities of hashish and marijuana in parts of Mallorca - Felanitx and Manacor in particular.