MISSILE PROTECTION FOR MARIVENT

Staff Reporter THE Spanish royal family's Marivent Palace in Palma is to be protected by a battery of Mistral surface-to-air missiles. The Royal protection squad has decided to significantly tighten security around the property which houses the palace and other buildings used by the royals after an apparent security breach over the palace on April 7. An investigation is underway into the dropping of two flares from a light plane which flew into the restricted airspace over the palace just hours before the King and Queen of Spain arrived at the palace at the start of their Easter break on the island. In response to the security breach, the royal protection squad is to base the surface-to-air shoulder fired missiles around Marivent Palace to increase anti-aircraft protection. Since an attempt to assassinate the King was thwarted in Palma in 1995, security around the royals and the palace in Majorca has been increasingly tight. However, in the wake of the March 11 attacks in Madrid and the forthcoming royal wedding next month, all security breaches are being taken extremely seriously. A security review is underway in Palma and the no-fly zone over Marivent Palace is expected to be increased. At present, it covers a one mile radius around the property, but security chiefs want to expand the no fly zone to two miles. Over Easter a massive security operation was mounted in Palma to protect the royals and the security breach is still somewhat of a mystery to the royal protection squad.