A ton of cocaine was seized, 72 people were arrested, three laboratories were closed and 460,000 euros in cash. These are some of the big numbers left by the largest anti-drug trafficking operation in the Balearic Islands, which has dealt a serious blow to drug trafficking networks on the islands. The joint operation of the National Police and the Civil Guard carried out last Tuesday in Mallorca, Barcelona and Tarragona, in which more than 600 agents from both armed forces took part, has made it possible to uncover one of the largest criminal organizations focused on the supply of cocaine from the region specialized in smashing capital. Catalan for the clans that dominate the drug trade on the island. The drugs arrived hidden in trucks belonging to legitimate companies, driven by people who charged around 1,000 euros for each delivery.
Operation Fade, named after the haircut of some of the organization’s drug traffickers, began in the summer of 2022 when plainclothes National Police agents discovered that three brothers of Dominican origin were running the cocaine trade in the Palma district of Gomila, where numerous international restaurants and cocktail bars are concentrated. After a strict police siege on the brothers that lasted several months, investigators identified the leader of a gang dedicated to buying cocaine in bulk and then supplying it daily to the Palma clans that dominate retail sales . in the city, which is mainly located in the Son Banya slum.
One of the searches carried out in Son Banya as part of Operation Fade in the early hours of October 17th. NATIONAL POLICE/CIVIL GUARD
The leader of this criminal organization, active for more than six years, controlled the cocaine trade between the Colombian and Dominican networks operating in Catalonia and was responsible for purchasing the raw materials in South America. The band had three dismantled laboratories in Barcelona where the product was processed. “Organizations in Colombia converted the coca leaf into paste, which was imported into Spain using international fruit trade channels. They mixed it with guava, it arrived in Barcelona and in the laboratory the process of extracting the fruit began. Filters and osmosis were then used to obtain the cocaine sulfate, which resulted in the product that is later consumed,” explained Eduardo Herrero, captain of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Balearic Guardia Civil.
The organization functioned through “strict internal discipline and extreme secrecy,” as the Chief Inspector of the Criminal Investigation Department of the National Police of the Islands, Gerardo Pérez, explained this Friday. He had a dozen truck drivers on his payroll who brought cocaine to the island every day and managed to evade controls and transport a dozen kilos a week. “The drugs came camouflaged in the products of the trucks that left Barcelona and entered at dawn through the port of Alcúdia, in the north of Mallorca,” Pérez explained. The drivers took advantage of their work in legitimate transport companies to make deliveries. They didn’t know about the illegal activity of their employees, who charged 1,000 euros for each trip, but when there were delays, they didn’t notice them.
The truck drivers delivered the goods to a network responsible for distribution to the criminal groups that dominate the drug trade in Mallorca. In fact, the operation made it possible to dismantle three of the island’s main drug-selling family clans, which operated from the Son Banya shantytown. The Ove clan, which inherited the distribution of Son Banya’s substances, was disbanded following the arrest of its leader, who had been wanted for years after he escaped on a prison holiday while serving a sentence for drug trafficking. Also wiped out were the La Pipi clan and the Cabrero clan, whose leader was released from prison less than two years ago after serving a sentence for drug trafficking. “They received around 10 kilos a week and whoever received them in Mallorca distributed them to most of the known cocaine dealers on the island. “We attacked the main supply line of the Son Banya, La Soledad, Gomila and Virgen de Lluc clans,” Pérez explained.
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Two Guardia Civil agents escort one of the prisoners in Mallorca last Thursday. Isaac Buj (Europa Press)
The investigation was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, ten people who were responsible for the deliveries were arrested in Valencia, Alcúdia and Palma. Last Tuesday, more than 600 agents from both forces were deployed in Palma, Barcelona and Tarragona to carry out the remaining arrests. The agents searched more than 70 houses at dawn, 40 of them in Palma and 33 in Tarragona and Barcelona. The three drug processing laboratories there were dismantled. In addition to confiscating all the machinery and equipment necessary for production, the officers also confiscated 485 kilos of fruit pulp containing cocaine and 1,100 liters of a liquid mixed with this drug. In addition, 63 kilograms of cocaine in brick form, 90 kilograms of ketamine, 3,300 ecstasy pills and 460,000 euros in cash were seized. The organization’s leaders, police commanders said, led a high standard of living, reflected in luxury homes and cars. In addition, many of them had connections to Galician and French drug traffickers.
So far, 13 of the detainees have been remanded in custody following their prosecution. The Guardia Civil and the National Police have explained that the operation was developed thanks to the joint collaboration of five investigative groups from both forces from Mallorca and Barcelona, which have been exclusively dedicated to this case for a year and a half. .
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