IN THE blistering heat of the Ibiza afternoon, groups of bug-eyed ravers walk along the main stretch of San Antonio Bay sucking on hippie crack balloons.
As competing beats arrive from pubs and clubs, an absurdly huge, shiny hot dog dominates the horizon.
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In the main square, groups of migrants chat under a tree before spreading out to sell their wares.
They used to sell fake Gucci sunglasses and fake Chanel bags, but now they’re offering something completely different: pink cocaine.
Spanish authorities have warned tourists taking the drug that it is so toxic it is “like a bomb” going off.
However, the British are at the center of the use and supply of this dangerous substance, a psychedelic mix of ketamine and ecstasy, along with what experts describe as “leftovers” from traffickers.
A former Ibiza police chief told us: “The British are so brazen that they put pink Cokes in their suitcases to sell and finance their holidays.”
We can reveal that the links between the British and Ibiza dealers who lash out the substance are so close that they offer pink cocaine to customers.
UK-based traffickers openly boast online about running a drug warehouse on the island.
For £55 plus £7 postage, traffickers will send a gram of the drug – also known as tusi or tucibi – to almost anywhere in Europe via Royal Mail or DHL.
In 2022, 12 people, who police said were “mostly British”, were arrested with 13 kilos of pink cocaine in Ibiza.
The Guardia Civil described the mini-cartel, armed with a submachine gun with a silencer and three other firearms, as being “of a very violent nature”.
It seems that smuggling drugs into Ibiza is not that difficult.
We visited San Antonio, where a middle-aged professional from the Newcastle area told us she took 3.5g of white Coke through customs.
She told us, “It’s easy. Many people do this. I bought it for £240 at home and put it in my suitcase.
Pink cocaine is marketed as an exclusive luxury drug originating in Colombia, South America, where it has its own musical genre and is linked to the sex trade.
The Spanish drug testing agency last year launched a campaign to make tourists and locals aware of the health risks, which include blurred vision, panic attacks, anxiety, heart problems and strokes.
A police source told Mallorca’s Daily Bulletin: “It is so powerful that it causes severe hypertension and can lead to heart failure.
ATTACK FEAR
“It’s a bomb because it’s ecstasy and powdered amphetamines.
“People don’t know what they are consuming.”
Authorities say it became the scourge of Spain and the Balearics and in February claimed its first victim – a 14-year-old boy in Madrid.
With 17 million Brits heading to Spain every year, we wanted to investigate the extent of the problem – and what we discovered will strike fear into the hearts of every parent who lets their teenagers holiday there.
San Antonio was full of the usual suspects; gangs of guys, beautiful women in barely-there outfits and bikinis and a few families scattered here and there.
In the bay, music played at the famous O Beach Ibiza – owned by Gary Lineker’s brother Wayne, 62 – as a giant hot dog was hoisted into the air with a trapeze artist hanging from the bizarre structure.
Although the sites were subject to strict security checks, tourists could easily access drugs along the seafront, where migrants – mainly from Senegal in West Africa – openly sell balloons filled with nitrous oxide, known as laughing gas or crack. hippie, for five euros.
Despite being banned in Ibiza, balloons are so popular that the local newspaper dubbed San Antonio the “laughing gas republic”.
There are so many that the local landfill received 13 tons of empty cans last month alone – the equivalent of 20,000 industrial-sized bottles.
Behind every can sold and every empty colorful balloon abandoned in the city is a drug dealer offering a menu of drugs, including tusi.
Vendors are spread out 20 meters apart along the bay and we were repeatedly accosted with shouts of “Charlie, Charlie” (cocaine) and “tusi” as they aggressively pounced on their deadly wares.
We spoke to a drug dealer who offered us a gram of pink cocaine for 60 euros, or two for 110 euros.
He said: “Pink is good. I can get anything, anything you want.
He was so forceful that he insisted on putting his number in my phone before letting us leave.
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Young women’s groups are especially targeted.
Tourist Oliwia Gaja, 19, from north London, said: “It’s all day, they just won’t leave you alone. It’s really intimidating.
Oliwia, who was with her friends, sisters Diana, 21, and Daniella Lapo, 19, added: “You think they are going to pull a knife on you and instead they pull out a gas cylinder.”
During dinner at a tapas bar open on the beach, we saw one of the vendors hide his stock in a nearby opening in the wall.
Public bins are full of empty containers.
Although many young people openly inhale balloons during the day, it is at night that the problems really begin.
As the last rays of the sunset faded, hundreds of revelers watching the spectacle from the rocks packed up their bags and headed to the West End.
Here it is difficult to switch to balloon sellers, who are even more open about what else is on offer.
Shouts of “coca” and “tusi” are deafening even above the beats emanating from the pubs.
FAILURE IN PRISON
In full view of the security guards, they approach the tables of young tourists, many of them on their first vacation abroad.
Worn by drink, party-goers are easily tempted by drug dealers and dozens can be seen sucking laughing gas.
On the side streets, we observed tourists handing over money in exchange for small packages.
It didn’t take long until we convinced three British boys to show us the colorful tusi they had bought for 60 euros.
And they’re not the only ones shamelessly showing off their stash.
With a bottle of water costing 14 euros in the most popular clubs, it’s easier to stay stoned than hydrated in Ibiza.
Declan and his friend – whose identities we have chosen not to reveal – both aged 20 and on holiday in the North East of England, told me they spent around £1,800 “indulging”.
Declan says: “We had a lot. We spend a lot of money.
“They offered us everything. It’s been really crazy. We will be back.
“It’s easy to bring drugs here, but we wouldn’t do that. They are the same price here as they are at home.”
They offered us everything. It’s been very mental. We will be back again
Declan
Most of the pink tusi sold arrives on the island on ferries.
Police made two ship seizures last month alone, but with so much flooding it is difficult to keep control of the problem.
Former commander of Ibiza’s Guardia Civil, Bartolome Del Amore, told us: “Tourists of all nationalities come to Ibiza with drugs in their bags to pay for their holidays.
“They can bring between 500 and 1,000 ecstasy tablets, or nowadays tusi, which they sell to pay for travel, but also to consume.
“Some are very indifferent to the way they pack them in their suitcases with their clothes and don’t take extra security measures.
“Others do everything they can to hide them.”
Ibiza has long been associated with the drug trade, with the British increasingly selling them on the island.
We found a website that sells everything from mushrooms to pink cocaine, based in Britain but claiming to run drug warehouses in Ibiza and France.
It offers to ship substances throughout Europe and proudly provides a UK email address for “advice”.
This week, two UK men went on trial in Palma over a £200,000 drug bust in Ibiza.
LITTLE POLICE PRESENCE
The men, who have not been identified but are aged 23 and 29, have denied any involvement with ketamine, cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy and laughing gas discovered in one of their homes.
One was also accused of participating in a failed prison break.
He allegedly pistol-whipped a police officer who was escorting a British prisoner to the dentist in Ibiza Town.
Locals later claimed that the arrested man was a well-known UK drug lord.
Three judges are expected to deliver their verdict in the coming weeks, when the men are expected to be named.
There is also little police presence.
Partygoers said they occasionally saw police officers, while we only saw two female police officers in three days.
Although around 90,000 Brits come to Ibiza every year, not everyone is impressed.
As I was flying home at the airport, two guys from Manchester told me they had only flown in for one night to visit big clubs like Pacha and Amnesia.
They missed their morning flight so decided to stay a second night despite having no accommodation.
“We won’t be back,” one of them tells me. “We had a great time and have been away since we got here, but it’s really expensive.”
For police officers fighting drugs on what was once considered a party-only island, it will be delirious music to their ears.
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This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
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