Agents from the Immediate Intervention Unit of the Local Police of Palma have halted unauthorized works in the Son Banya settlement, where new roads were intended to be opened for drug sales. Materials and heavy machinery were seized.
The Local Police of Palma has stopped clandestine works in the shanty town of Son Banya that, according to investigations, were aimed at creating new access routes to facilitate drug trafficking. The operation, carried out by the Immediate Intervention Unit (UII), resulted in the seizure of a backhoe and the imposition of urban planning violations on the operator.
The events occurred when the preventive surveillance service detected earth-moving activities at the entrance of the settlement. Upon arrival, the agents found a 46-year-old man of Moroccan nationality operating the machine on public land owned by the Balearic Institute of Housing (IBAVI). The individual, who lacked documentation, claimed he was searching for scrap metal, but his contradictions led the agents to take him to the Sant Ferran police station.
Upon verifying his identity, police systems revealed that the suspect was wanted by two investigating courts in Palma with three search and location orders. After notifying him of the summons, he was issued a report for urban planning violations.
Minutes later, the legal lessee of the backhoe, a 47-year-old Spaniard, arrived at the scene. He admitted that he had previously carried out unauthorized concreting works in the settlement months ago, for which he had accumulated prior complaints. The company owning the excavator, unaware of its illegal use, sent an urgent crane to remove the machinery from the settlement.
The inspection of the site uncovered the true purpose of the works. Hidden under tarpaulins, agents found high-power lighting fixtures, rolls of professional cabling, packing tape, and construction materials. All the equipment was set up to imminently erect a new structure intended for drug sales.
The abandoned materials were confiscated for destruction. Additionally, the Local Police removed a car parked at the entrance of the settlement that was registered as decommissioned and without mandatory insurance to the municipal depot.
Son Banya is a well-known drug sales point in Mallorca, where security forces conduct periodic operations to dismantle the illegal structures supporting drug trafficking. This action adds to other recent operations in the same area, where materials have been seized and several individuals have been charged.
The Local Police of Palma has reminded that the land where the works were carried out is publicly owned and that any unauthorized intervention constitutes an urban planning violation. They have also stated that surveillance will continue to prevent the resumption of works.
For the residents of Palma, this action represents a new blow to drug trafficking in the area, although concerns persist about the recurrence of such illegal activities in the settlement. Authorities are hopeful that ongoing police pressure will ultimately dismantle these networks completely.
You may also like
