By Andrew Ede
Copyright majorcadailybulletin
El Vito’ is a relative newcomer to the police, but he has been a household name in the Palma shanty town of Son Banya for many years. Aged 24, he has risen to become the new head of what is often referred to as Mallorca’s drugs supermarket. His nickname perhaps makes him the obvious boss; it comes from Vito Corleone of The Godfather fame.
Passionate about high-powered cars, he has an Audi RS3 and a Golf R, a remarkable thing about him is that he has no police record. There have been various rumours as to why this might be.
It was said some months ago that the clans in Son Banya were cooperating with each other. Up to a point they were. Nevertheless, five of the drugs barons were vying for supremacy. Mounting competition led on one occasion to sabotage, and out of this competition has emerged El Vito.
There is a return to a more centralised form of power, as was once exerted by the notorious ‘La Paca’. And with this centralisation has come a return to the focus on drug selling as it was some ten years ago. The real business is cocaine. There is also some marijuana and hashish. Heroin and the likes of fake Viagra have been dispensed with.
It has been rumoured that fentanyl is for sale in Son Banya. A Guardia Civil commander says no: “It’s too much trouble for them. The main thing they want is for there to be no problems.”
Under El Vito’s ‘management’, the price of a gram of cocaine has been capped. It is sixty euros, as it has been for a number of years. How a gram is cut is another matter. There is also a certain ‘modernisation’ in the form of improvised bars for the clientele.
Son Banya itself and the gypsy clans’ hold over the drugs trade are both under threat from competition elsewhere in Palma and in Manacor. Eastern Europeans, Moroccans, Colombians are grabbing power from the gypsies. Most of the barons no longer live in the shanty town. They’ve moved out to estates they have acquired in other parts of Palma as well as in the likes of Sineu.
