Mallorca: drug trade cannot be wiped out, says Rial

Palma, Mallorca: encrypted chats are making the Balearic Islands’ drug trade harder to investigate, says Lola Rial, the islands’ new deputy chief prosecutor. She speaks after taking up the post on Tuesday, 20 October. Rial says trafficking cannot be wiped out while people continue to take drugs.

Rial has spent 15 of her 17 years working in the Balearic Islands on drug cases. In that time, she says, traffickers have become more professional. Their use of encrypted messaging platforms now makes investigations much harder.

Five prosecutors currently work on drug cases across the islands, a number Rial does not consider too low. She wants them to keep working closely with state security forces. The aim, she says, is to stop traffickers becoming entrenched, laundering money or acquiring property and businesses that make their activities look legitimate.

Rial calls those efforts “patches”, not a cure. More prosecutors might help, she says, but would not necessarily bring an end to the trade.

Topics: Police

Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com