Crime

Drugs queen was taking total control of Son Banya

La Eva being helped from a Guardia Civil vehicle following her return to Majorca. | Pere Bota

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma21/05/2018 00:00

Eva María Crespo, aka La Eva, was arrested in the Albacete province on the mainland last week. The so-called "queen of coke" has been a central figure in the drugs trade in the Son Banya. The Guardia Civil are charging her with having supplied drugs to various clans in the Palma shanty town. Along with her husband, Juan Manuel Amaya Batista (El Lolo), the Guardia say that she was bringing in vast quantities of cocaine using cars with adapted flooring that is designed to avoid detection.

The criminal police based in Algaida and the organised crime squad have established that La Eva was using one particular gang - El Andújar - to control the other clans in Son Banya. Considered the successor as drugs matriarch to the infamous La Paca (Francisca Cortés Picazo), the Guardia Civil have arrived at the conclusion that her aim was to have total control of Son Banya.

The Andújar, in addition to having been a means of control, was the clan in charge of going to Valencia in order to acquire cocaine shipments and then bring them to Majorca.

Under tight security, La Eva, her husband and her 21-year-old son, Juan Francisco Amaya Crespo, were flown from Valencia on Saturday and then taken to the Guardia Civil command centre. On Sunday, the three were invited to make statements but they declined to do so. The Guardia are meanwhile trying to ascertain who tipped them off about a major anti-drugs operation that took place on 25 April. She had been one of the targets for arrest, but was nowhere to be found when the raid was staged.

In a related development, it is understood that the former anti-corruption prosecutor, Pedro Horrach, is to act as defence lawyer for El Lolo.