A Palma judge has ordered that 13 of the 23 people arrested in the latest phase of the anti-drug operation Jaque Mate (Checkmate), in which the Guardia Civil has dismantled a large network that smuggled cocaine from Colombia and distributed it in Mallorca and other areas of Spain be jailed.
According to the Balearic High Court of Justice of the, the final result of the arrests, which concluded early this morning (Saturday), is that seven of the detainees have been sent to prison without bail, six others have been released with bail ranging from 10,000 to 30,000 euros, and ten others have been released with charges.
Among those released is Joaquín Fernández, el Prestamista, known for his starring role in the television series ‘Gipsy Kings’, while Carlos Cortés, el Charly, president of the Federation of Gypsy Associations of the Balearics, has been remanded in prison without bail.
In total, the Guardia Civil have seized 1.3 tonnes of cocaine, arrested 64 people of Spanish and Colombian nationality, blocked 148 current accounts and seized 40 properties in Mallorca and the mainland worth 8.8 million euros.
As a result of the final phase of the operation, in which 300,000 euros in cash have been seized, the Guardia Civil are confident that the drug trafficking gangs led by El Charly, El Prestamista and relatives of Pablo, who is serving a prison sentence for similar crimes, have been dismantled.
Most of the drugs came from Colombia, with some shipments from Brazil. It entered Europe in containers via Portugal and a large part of it arrived in Valencia and Barcelona to finally end up in Mallorca.
In the first phase of this operation, the security forces discovered 1.3 tonnes of cocaine camouflaged in blocks of Brazilian granite in an industrial warehouse in Cehegín (Murcia), where nine people were arrested, including the head of the Colombian cartel in Spain.
In the second phase, carried out at the end of January this year, 23 searches were carried out and 16 people were arrested in Valencia, Palma and Toledo.
Finally, the last phase of the operation took place this Wednesday and Thursday in Palma, in the Mallorcan municipality of Marratxí and in Valencia, and resulted in the arrest of 39 alleged members of the network after 71 searches of homes and premises.
The operation was carried out by the Judicial Police Unit of the Balearics and the Balearic Organised Crime Team of the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Guardia Civil, with the support of units from the mainland.
The US anti-drug agency and the Colombian, Brazilian and Portuguese police have also been involved in the investigation.
And it transpires that drug king ‘El Pablo’ lived in a property fit for a movie set, nothing was what it seemed. The Palma “palace” is a real fortification.
The most remarkable thing is that it has an underground tunnel of about 30 to escape from police raids. The palace was made up of ten houses merged together, with a swimming pool, lift and Asian designer luxury.
Investigators estimate that Pablo Campos Maya had merged ten houses to build a mansion in the neighbourhood of La Soledat.
Drug sales and use are just a side effect of poverty and housing shortages, time that Mallorca realised that it needs to make some fundamental changes to its government and not just offering platitudes at every election and then doing nothing about anything just to try and get re-elected.
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Drug sales and use are just a side effect of poverty and housing shortages, time that Mallorca realised that it needs to make some fundamental changes to its government and not just offering platitudes at every election and then doing nothing about anything just to try and get re-elected.