WEEK IN REVIEW

The stories that made the headlines this week in Mallorca

How far might Operation Checkmate reach?

A great deal of caution should be exercised before leaping to conclusions regarding developments since last week’s raids as part of Operation Checkmate, one of the biggest drugs operations ever mounted in Mallorca. The caution is especially necessary when it comes to Palma town hall. We have, after all, been here before, as with the cases of alleged corruption - most notably that with the owner of BCM, Tolo Cursach, at its centre - and which have collapsed in a heap when put to the test in the courts. The Guardia Civil’s Judicial Police are understood to be investigating meetings involving Vox representatives in Son Banya, the shanty town often nicknamed Mallorca’s drugs supermarket. What are the police actually interested in? A Vox councillor who has been specifically named because of an apparent relationship with the Balearic federation of gypsy federations she is said to take care of the federation’s administration - has said that meetings prior to the election last May were publicised. The media knew they were happening. What’s the issue?

The Partido Popular mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez, has himself been forced into denying that contacts with Carlos Cortés (’El Charly’), the federation’s president and one of the 23 people arrested last week, were to do with capturing votes from the gypsy community. He has noted that Vox polled higher than the PP in Son Banya. Vox in fact polled highest of all the parties both in Son Banya and La Soledad, where there were raids last week.

Even so, opposition parties are unlikely to let the matter drop. A Més councillor, Miquel Àngel

Contreras, has called for the case to be “thoroughly investigated at both judicial and political levels”. And this was before the Judicial Police made their interest known in the meetings.

Another high-profile story with a follow-on concerns German property developer Matthias Kühn. Three weeks ago, the Supreme Court ruled that the Balearic government

must pay him 96 million euros in respect of the blocked development of Muleta II in Puerto Soller. He now mainly lives in Switzerland but was in Mallorca at the time of the ruling, which was when Tax Agency officials went to his home and seized computer data.

The agency, a court of instruction in Palma and the anti-corruption prosecution service are all delving into an allegation that bankruptcy proceedings related to some twenty of his companies were a manoeuvre to avoid the collection of debts owed to the agency - the reported figure is eleven or

so million euros plus surcharges and interest. The prosecution service accuses Kühn of having created a complex network of shell companies and then declared them bankrupt so as to not have to pay the

debts.

Matthias Kühn - compensation and now under investigation