Shoot-out in Ibiza

Everybody knows “recreational” drugs form an important part of Ibiza’s economy. Without Ecstasy the whole dance music scene would never have happened. But then neither would the hippy and prog-rock scene have occurred without cannabis and LSD.

But despite the large amounts of money being made by dealers so far there has been little real violence. So it was a shock to hear about the shoot-out in San Antonio yesterday. What seems to have happened is that one group of English gangsters opened fire on another gang in a British-registered BMW.

Hopefully this was a one-off event, the same as the fatal shooting of a Madrid “used-car dealer” last summer. Apparently nobody involved had anything to do with the island.

Here’s how Google translates the story from the local paper El Diario de Ibiza:

Three hurt in Sant Antoni in a shooting between English bands by the control of the drug trafficking

Two people were stopped by a pair of the Local Police in the place of the facts, whereas the Civil Guard has arrested other six suspects in different points from the island. The delinquents carried out between 20 and 30 firings

Three wounded, two of them of gravity, and eight stopped is the provisional balance of a shooting that happened at dawn of yesterday in the avenue Doctor Fleming de Sant Antoni.

The most reasonable hypothesis whereupon works the Civil Guard is that the incident is an adjustment of accounts between two bands of British delinquents who try to control the drug trafficking in Eivissa during the high season. The arrests took place in several municipalities of the Pitiüses and, according to official sources, it does not discard that the number of prisoners increases in the next hours.

The facts happened on the one of the dawn of yesterday. According to the Local Police, to the height of number 5 of the avenue Doctor Fleming, a vehicle that circulated in direction towards the crossing with the avenue of Portmany (a Seat white Leon) was placed in parallel to another one (a BMW X5 of black color and British matriculation).

The first vehicle they left the first firings, to which they responded from the other car. A shooting began therefore in which, at least, they took place between 20 and 30 firings.

According to police sources, the attacked vehicle presented/displayed between eight and ten impacts of bullet. In the facade of the Soft Clinic and a store of souvenirs, as opposed to which it happened everything, two and five shots could be appreciated, respectively.
To the few minutes of the shooting personaba a pair of the Local Police of countryman who was serving by the West End and who was alerted by passers-by. According to the councilman of Interior, Joan Pantaleoni explained, “the agents arrived when already he was being taken care of the wounded.

Thanks to the description of several witnesses were come to the halting of two people who could be implied, although this end must be confirmed in the investigation”. Another one of the presumed gunmen fled at least with the Seat Leon, a vehicle that was later found in the municipality of Sant Josep, in the neighborhoods of Sant Jordi.

Agents of the Civil Guard reviewed yesterday the camera of security of the Local Police located in the avenue Doctor Fleming to verify if she caught the moment of the aggression or recorded both to some of vehicles. Also members of the Meritorious one were in charge yesterday to review all the dustbins of the zone, as well as the bottom of the zone of beach nearer the place of the event.

They looked for the arms with which the firings were made, something that had not obtained to average behind schedule of yesterday, according to explained the insular director of the State, Jose Manuel Bar.

Adjustment of accounts

The most reasonable hypothesis with the one than works the Civil Guard is that “it is a litigation related to the world of the drug between two bands of British delinquents”, explained Bar. “Reason why we know, they did not have a residence rooted in Eivissa and its stay is transitory. This is important because we are not speaking in question of Mafias established in the island, something that we are not arranged to tolerate and against which we will act with the greater forcefulness”.

“Rather we would be speaking of two bands of delinquents who have come here to take advantage of that in summer there is more business with the drug trafficking and have had east confrontation by the control from the market”, added.

Bar wanted to emphasize that “although it has taken place in Sant Antoni, could have happened in any other point of the island”.

“It gave the chance of which they were there, since it could have happened in any other site”, stressed.

That the ochos practiced haltings (two at he himself moment of the aggression and other six during the following hours) have happened in different municipalities from the island would reinforce this theory, explained Bar.