Mallorca courts: 53 sentenced in biggest drugs trial

Some of the accused in court. | Alejandro Sepúlveda

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma25/03/2022 12:46

The largest ever drugs trial in Mallorca has resulted in 53 convictions and 22 acquittals. Sentences delivered by the Provincial Court in Palma range from ten months to eight years. Thirty-seven of those on trial reached agreements with the prosecutor María Dolores Rial at the first session.

Operación Ludar was a Guardia Civil operation in April 2018. It was directed at drugs clans in Palma's Son Banya shanty town, La Soledat and Son Gotleu as well as some areas in the rest of Mallorca. In the early hours of April 25, 300 Guardia Civil officers stormed Son Banya, assisted by a drone equipped with powerful infrared that identified targets from a height of some one hundred metres. The assault, led by the organised crime squad, was rapid and comprehensive. Those targeted had little or no time to react.

However, one of Son Banya's most notorious drugs matriarchs, Eva María Crespo, 'La Eva', had fled just before the operation. She and her husband, known as 'El Lolo', and their son went to Hellín in the Albacete province of Castile-La Mancha. They were tracked down and brought back to Mallorca.