Isha Sesay
POLICE in Mallorca have discovered that a greengrocer has been used as a one-stop shop to sell cocaine.
As part of a crackdown on narcotics in the capital, four men were arrested in the anti-drugs operation.
The detainees, all of Colombian nationality, had connections to the fruit and vegetable shop which was found to sell cocaine at its cash register.
The investigation had been sparked by an anonymous tip to police which suggested that drugs were being sold inside a flat in the Pere Garau neighbourhood.
The informant said that they had seen dozens of people coming in and out of the property at all hours of the day.
A covert operation was launched by the Policia Nacional which verified that the flat was being used to deal narcotics.
A dawn raid subsequently ensued, uncovering 150 grams of cocaine and large sums of cash.
Two of the men found on the premises were arrested and charged with drug trafficking.
It was then bought to the attention of police that one of the detainees ran a greengrocer in the same neighbourhood.
This was later searched with officers finding several wraps of cocaine ready for sale stockpiled inside the cash register.
Two men working inside the shop were arrested and have also been charged with drug trafficking.
It comes a month after a criminal organisation allegedly responsible for supplying cocaine to the majority of drug dealers in Mallorca was dismantled.
As part of ‘Operation Gunpowder,’ 16 ‘members’ of the gang were arrested in multiple dawn raids carried out by the Policia Nacional.
This included a Cuban couple, considered to be the ‘kingpins’ of the organisation.
The detainees allegedly introduced large consignments of high-purity cocaine from South America which were then cut at a makeshift laboratory installed inside a flat in the capital.
Earlier this year police also busted a large-scale narcotics laboratory on the island.
Copious amounts of illegal substances, including cocaine, speed and ecstasy, were found at the makeshift drugs lab set up at a home in the Son Cotoner district of Palma.
A 48-year-old Spaniard was detained on suspicion of drug trafficking.
