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STAFF REPORTER

PALMA
CENTRAL Government has claimed that yesterday's operation against the “La Paca” clan in Son Banya has dismantled the “main point of sale for drugs in Majorca”.

The Government's representative in the Balearics, Ramon Socias, gave details of Tuesday's Operation Kabul - during which 25 people were arrested, including the head of the clan, Francisca Cortes or “La Paca” - at a press conference yesterday, alongside Lieutenant Colonel Jaume Barcelo of the Guardia Civil.

More than 200 agents were involved in the operation, which saw the break-up of five points of sale for drugs on the island in Son Banya, Capdepera and Palma.

The agents seized nine kilos of cocaine, three kilos of heroin, 600'000 euros in cash (including 330'000 euros in the house of “La Paca”), a pistol, two shotguns (one of them sawn-off, seven high-performance vehicles and numerous items of jewellery and documents, some 500 fighting cocks and 300 horses. The latter, according to Socias, “were a way of laundering money”.

The investigation that culminated in this operation began in October 2007.
In total, the Guardia Civil carried out 36 searches, 27 in Son Banya, eight in Palma and one in Capdepera. Initially, 27 people were arrested, 21 of them in Son Banya. However, two were later set free, as they had no “direct relation” with the sale of drugs. Different units of the Guardia Civil were involved in the operation, including the Organised Crime and Anti-Drugs Squad (EDOA) and the Environmental Protection Service (SEPRONA), as well as police officers from Madrid and Valencia. A helicopter provided aerial support during the operation.

One group of officers entered the places where the drugs were being sold, another carried out searches accompanied by members of the Judicial Police, while a third guarded the access and approaches to Son Banya.

Socias described Tuesday's events as the “largest operation against the historic heart of drug trafficking in the Balearic community.