27/04/2013 00:00
TW
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By Humphrey Carter AT least 30 people were arrested yesterday when the Guardia Civil and National Police dismantled “one of the largest and most active hashish smuggling gangs in Europe.” Police swooped on a coastal estate in Valldemossa just after midday after a suspicious boat was reported offloading items on the property. When the police stormed the property, they stumbled on a group of over 20 people, most of them Moroccans, and three tonnes of hashish. Some managed to flee the scene but police managed to round most of the suspects up in the Valldemossa area. Last night, the Guardia Civil reported 30 arrests, including three Majorcans who are believed to be the brains behind an operation to apparently establish a new European distribution outlet for drugs smuggled into Majorca from north Africa.


Operation “Flor de Loto-Paradise” was first mounted last October after a number of high-speed inflatable ribs full of drugs were intercepted in Majorcan waters and, as a result of information gleaned from a number of phone taps, the security services knew that the gang was preparing to smuggle a large shipment of hashish into the islands this week.

In an interesting twist, three other suspected drug smugglers, two Spaniards apparently under the command of an Italian, were arrested at Barcelona airport en route to Majorca and apparently on a mission to steal the drugs from their alleged rivals in Valldemossa. Police chiefs said last night that not only has a seriously important international gang been dismantled, a possible and dangerous turf war has been prevented as well.

More arrests could well be made over the next few days as the hugely successful anti-drugs operation remains very much ongoing.