UK media in guns and drugs frenzy

Ever since I posted that last article about the shoot out in San Antonio I’ve been thinking about the impact of drugs on Ibiza. I’ve also been looking at the media coverage given to the island this summer for an article to appear in Pacha magazine, although I wasn’t able to go into detail about the drugs issue.

(Focusing on the positive coverage such as this one from the New York Times wasn’t a matter of cowardice. Articles about the drugs scene can so easily be overtaken by events that I didn’t want to write something that would be out of date by the time the magazine appears.)

Anyway, this Sunday Mirror article is typical of the ones that have appeared since the shooting. It’s not factually inaccurate, but I don’t think it’s exactly true either.

Having worked for too many years in newspapers I’m pretty sure that what happened was that the original story about the shooting was sufficiently interesting for the news editor to send a reporter over to Ibiza for a few days. That meant he had to come back with something to justify the cost of sending a journalist over.

He couldn’t say, even if he thought it was true: “It seems to have been a one-off event and it’s been dealt with by the police.” If he tried that he certainly wouldn’t be top of the list next time an expenses paid trip to the sun came up. He might even lose his job completely.

Instead he comes up with:

An insider helping police with their investigation said: "There's a lot of bad blood over what's happened. There's talk of hired hands and relatives flying in to Ibiza hell-bent on revenge."

Every story has had some variation on this unnamed source working with the police. There’s no hard evidence of any follow up and I’m inclined to think there won’t be. It is, however, in the interests of journalists and the police to suggest there is a real threat. Both want more resources and this is one way to get it.

In my next post I’ll give you my take on the Ibiza drug scene. Meanwhile even a supposedly serious newspaper has got carried away with itself...

Gang violence erupts as rave craze returns

With the rebirth of dance culture, hard drugs are openly for sale on the streets of Ibiza. Tonight, 40,000 ecstasy tablets will be bought on the island. Now the brutality that underpins the trade is boiling over, and the party paradise is turning into a nightmare world of contract killings

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.

Health bar that was ill-prepared for Ibiza

My Guardian column for June.

Scientists often use fruit flies in experiments because of their simple structure and rapid life cycle. Small businesses in Ibiza could probably perform the same function for economists. Hundreds of new bars, shops and restaurants appear at the start of each summer, most hoping to make enough to survive from a tourist season that lasts perhaps three months. Few will survive their first winter.

Sometimes the reasons for failure are so obvious that it makes you want to scream: "Stop throwing your money away. Lie on the beach, get drunk, squander your cash, but please stop putting so much energy into wasting it."

Even people you'd think would know better make elementary mistakes. I watched one couple blow a substantial nest egg they'd accumulated from previous business ventures trying to run an up-market Indian restaurant. Unfortunately they'd located it in a strip of cheap bars, neon-lit fast-food joints and tacky souvenir shops.

Their problem was a common one. Almost every business here has to either stand out from a host of similar competitors within walking distance, or entice punters out to the sticks.

Earlier this summer I went to a bar that, despite being out of the way, seemed to have a winning proposition. Oxy, I read in a local magazine, had an oxygen bar, alcohol-free natural energy cocktails and music through until 4am.

The combination might sound a little healthy for Ibiza, but despite the island's hedonistic reputation, you can't move for yoga centres, spas and holistic health practitioners. The absence of alcohol also means there's no need for a designated driver.

Three of us arrived a little after midnight one Friday. In the late-night life of Ibiza this is generally peak-time for bars, between eating and going to a club. Of course, not every bar can be full at the same time and there's often a strange unwritten timetable that seems to ensure that crowds will appear at a particular spot at 3am for no obvious reason.

That might have been the case with Oxy, but it seemed unlikely. The only people there were us, the barman and the DJ behind the expensive-looking decks. There was no sign of recently departed customers, nor of the famous oxygen bar. Only a British sense of politeness stopped me dragging the others back to the car in search of somewhere with signs of life.

But I've seen worse places. The bar was decorated with a variety of pieces that were probably found on skips or bought second-hand - the sort of shabby chic that can work if done well or if the bar's busy. This failed on both counts.

I actually felt too embarrassed to start talking to the barman. Something had obviously gone horribly wrong with the business plan and I really didn't want to rub his nose in it. Instead, my wife, Barbara, started talking to him.

It turned out the barman was the owner. He was a French guy with definite hippy inclinations. In typical Ibiza style he'd had the idea for the oxygen bar before he'd checked the cost. Specialist units that deliver metered doses of flavoured gas cost around €7,000, he said. So he decided to test the market for the concept by using a medical oxygen cylinder. He pointed to the corner at what resembled a large bomb covered in Christmas decorations.

There were other problems. A burst of pure oxygen is very relaxing - which tends to make you a little sleepy. That doesn't go down too well in Ibiza where what people want is an energy boost.

Next, he had to contend with new legislation forcing small bars to designate themselves smoking or non-smoking. Oxy followed the vast majority in allowing people to light up. Safety laws, however, prevent smoking when pure oxygen is being used.

The bar's other advertised speciality, energy cocktails, use fresh ingredients. For these you need a rapid turnover and, therefore, plenty of customers. I don't need to explain what's missing from that equation. Finally, our owner decided you couldn't have a bar without alcohol.

So now he's left with a smoky bar in the middle of nowhere, not unlike dozens of others. I'll be interested to see if he's still there next summer.