Police hold 21 in flea market raid

Startled tourists looking forward to a morning of haggling for bargains at Palma's popular Saturday morning flea market got more than they bargained for yesterday as they found themselves caught up in a police raid. The police moved in on three streets and arrested 21 vendors, all foreigners and most of them African. The raid was directed by the police with the collaboration of officers of the foreigners and documentation unit and uniformed officers, some 30 in all. The police went into action in the Calles Escuela Graduada, Mateo Enrique Lladó and Vedrá, all leading off the Avenidas, and the raid lasted from 9.30 to 11am. The raid was organised as a direct result of complaints from firms such as Calvin Klein, Adidas and Nike, who have reported large numbers of garments with fake labels. Police went from stall to stall, acting discretely in order not to cause alarm and not to damage the interest of the other vendors. When fake designer labels were found, the garments were seized and the person in charge of the stall arrested. At the end of the morning 21 persons had been arrested and some 4'000 garments valued at 100 million pesetas were confiscated. Those arrested were released after questioning, but will still have to appear in court. Most of the garments were sportswear.