Drug war threatens the Ibiza - TranceAddict Forums

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Posted by tjpatel on Aug-18-2006 18:39:

Drug war threatens the Ibiza

It was a typical night in the busy holiday resort of San Antonio in Ibiza. Lads were touting tickets for the biggest party in town and women in bikinis were gyrating to dance music in front of the resort's strip of beach bars.

But just after 1am, two teenagers from Northern Ireland, recent arrivals on the Spanish island that attracts 500,000 Britons each summer, stumbled out of a nightclub in search of a snack and were mown down by gunfire.

As a bullet ripped through student Niall Hamilton's cheek, lodging itself in his jaw, his friend Gareth Richardson dropped to the ground with a bullet wound to the chest.

The two were not the intended targets. They had unwittingly wandered into the crossfire of what police believe is an escalating turf war between rival British drug dealers battling to control the lucrative cocaine and ecstasy market on the island.

Mr Hamilton, 18, from Holywood, near Belfast, is still recovering in hospital after the shooting late last month. Doctors said the bullet would certainly have killed him had it been an inch higher.

"I came on holiday looking for a laugh and a good time," Mr Hamilton said. "The last thing I expected was to get shot. "We just nipped out of the club for a burger and walked around a corner, then heard what we thought were fireworks. All of a sudden I was on the ground and I could hear people around me screaming that I'd been hit."

The gunfight, in which up to 30 shots were fired, followed a high-speed chase between two cars through the streets of San Antonio. A British occupant of one of the cars has been arrested and is in hospital under armed guard with a bullet in his spine.

Police say growing numbers of British drug dealers are appearing on the island, sent out for the summer by UK gang bosses to supply class A drugs to holidaymakers flocking to join Ibiza's dance-till-dawn party scene.

Ecstasy, which can be bought for just a few pounds, has long been tolerated on the island.

But police fear that the recent shooting is a symptom of a growing feud that is threatening to destroy the relative peacefulness of the holiday island.

Since the incident two weeks ago they have conducted a series of raids, seizing specialist equipment, drugs and weapons from homes in the hills around San Antonio and have arrested 13 alleged drug dealers, many of them British nationals.

They have also called for help from their British counterparts to mount a joint operation to tackle the problem. Ibiza already has 28 Britons serving prison sentences for drug trafficking and related crimes.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...16/wibiza16.xml

Posted by gehzumteufel on Aug-18-2006 18:46:

wow didnt know that ibiza was a dangerous place.

Posted by |Thrax| on Aug-18-2006 19:11:

I saw the documentery, I know what's up.

If anyone would like to see BBC: Drugland Ibiza PM me.

or check this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/4134919.stm

Posted by diskodave on Aug-18-2006 21:04:

The bad part is the police dont really do shit about it...

Posted by bas on Aug-19-2006 01:50:

Not really a "dangerous place", shit like that happens all over the world. What do you expect to happen on THE definitive party island? The article even says that ecstacy is tolerated. Sheesh. Wrong place wrong time, just stay the hell out of San Antonio. Everyone knows that

Posted by Junior Chavez on Aug-19-2006 02:23:

wow, not cool.

Posted by ivanbee on Aug-19-2006 03:28:

good thing nobody on this board does drugz

Posted by bas on Aug-19-2006 03:43:

quote:
Originally posted by ivanbee
good thing nobody on this board does drugz

Posted by nrgtrance39 on Aug-19-2006 15:35:

yeah serious im glad your a red ribbon supporter and spokesmen Bas im sure you wont find yourself in the same trouble on your vacay.