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A total of 64 people have been arrested during a mega-raid once morest cocaine trafficking. During the operation, the Civil Guard seized more than a ton of said drugs and discovered a network of secret tunnels in a neighborhood of Palma de Mallorca, which drug traffickers used to hide the narcotic and escape. Among those detained in the so-called Operation Checkmate, who during the morning of this Friday have been brought to judicial disposal, are Joaquín Fernández, The Lenderfamous for his participation in the television program Los gipsy kings, in which he showed a luxurious lifestyle, and Carlos Cortés, Charliepresident of the Federation of Gypsy Associations of the Balearic Islands (Fagib).
The operation, which has been in progress for a year and a half, was closed this Wednesday, when agents carried out 60 searches in Mallorca and another 11 in Valencia, during which 39 people were arrested and several kilos of hashish, marijuana, cocaine and crystal and glass were seized. eight marijuana plantations. In addition, 15 high-end vehicles, 220,000 euros, two short weapons and a shotgun have been seized, and 100 bank accounts and 32 properties valued at more than 7 million euros have been blocked.
It all started with the detection of a group of Colombian citizens who were responsible for introducing cocaine into Spain from South America, through Portugal. Then they sent that drug to the call of the “Valencian clan”, who were the ones who distributed it in Mallorca. In December of last year, nine people were arrested, including the person responsible for the Colombian group in Spain. He was surprised while extracting 1.3 tons of cocaine camouflaged inside blocks of Brazilian granite that were stored in an industrial warehouse in the Murcian town of Cehegín. Shortly following, at the end of January 2024, 23 searches were carried out and investigators arrested 16 people in Valencia, Palma and Toledo. In this phase, 48 bank accounts were blocked and properties valued at more than 1.8 million euros were seized.
In the last phase of this operation, carried out in the early hours of this Wednesday, March 13, the majority of the arrests were carried out in Mallorca (Palma and Marratxí), although there were also actions in Valencia, where 11 searches were carried out. . More than 200 agents, many arriving from the peninsula, were deployed in the neighborhoods of El Molinar, Soledat, Son Gotleu and Son Banya. The agents seized various narcotic substances such as cocaine, hashish and designer drugs and eight marijuana plantations were dismantled. The president of the Federation of Gypsy Associations of the Balearic Islands (Fagib), detained in the operation, has had a prominent role in the negotiations with the City Council for the dismantling of the Son Banya neighborhood, a town to which investigators maintain that part of of cocaine for subsequent sale.
Sources of the investigation place El Charly and El Prestamista at the top of the distribution of drugs that arrived from the Peninsula. They maintain that El Charly’s marriage to a woman originally from Valencia allowed him to establish relations with the Los Valencianos clan, one of the drug trafficking groups dedicated to supplying cocaine to the Majorcan clans. This relationship allowed, according to these sources, to create a cocaine trafficking channel to Mallorca by sea from Valencia. Investigators accuse El Prestamista of paying El Charly to open, together with Los Valencianos, another channel for the entry of drugs to the island from Barcelona. They maintain that El Lender kept part of the substances to sell them to the Pablo clan, which operates in the La Soledat neighborhood, and distribute them in the neighborhoods of Son Gotleu and the town of Son Banya.
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The Civil Guard has said that the detainees took enormous security measures at the drug sales points, with armored doors and rapid destruction systems for drugs. “A network of passageways connecting the homes was also discovered, with tunnels dug to escape police action, in addition to numerous surveillance cameras installed in the streets of a neighborhood in Mallorca,” the armed institute says in a press release on the operation once morest drug trafficking.
In total, 15 high-end vehicles, 300,000 euros in cash have been seized, 148 checking accounts and 40 properties worth 8.8 million euros have been blocked.
The operation, directed by the Investigative Court number 7 of Palma and by the Anti-Drug Prosecutor’s Office of Palma, has been carried out by the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police of the Balearic Islands and by the Organized Crime Team of the Balearic Islands of the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard. Several international agencies have collaborated in the investigation: the DEA of the United States, the Judicial Police of Portugal, the Federal Police of Brazil and the National Police of Colombia.
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