I went to Ibiza & was offered deadly cocaine within hours – but more shocking is who was selling it & how they got it in
IN the searing afternoon heat of Ibiza, groups of bug-eyed ravers walk along the main stretch of San Antonio Bay sucking on balloons of hippy crack.
As competing beats pour from pubs and clubs, an absurd enormous sparkly hotdog dominates the skyline.
In the main square, groups of migrants huddle in conversation under a tree before fanning out to sell their wares.
They once peddled fake Gucci sunglasses and knock-off Chanel handbags, yet now they offer something altogether different — pink cocaine.
Spanish authorities have warned tourists who take the drug that it is so toxic it’s “like a bomb” going off.
Yet Brits are at the centre of the use and supply of the dangerous substance, a psychedelic mix of ketamine and ecstasy, along with what experts describe as dealers’ “leftovers”.
An ex-Ibizan police chief told us: “Brits are so brazen they will pack pink coke in their suitcase to sell to fund their holiday.”
We can reveal the links between British and Ibizan drug lords flogging the substance are so tight they offer to POST pink cocaine to customers.
Dealers based in the UK openly boast online of running a drugs warehouse on the island.
For £55 plus £7 postage, dealers will send a gram of the drug — also known as tusi or tucibi — almost anywhere in Europe through Royal Mail or DHL.
In 2022, 12 people, who police said were “mostly Brits”, were busted with 13 kilos of pink cocaine in Ibiza.
The Guardia Civil described the mini cartel, armed with a submachine gun with a silencer plus three other firearms, as being “of a very violent nature”.
It appears smuggling drugs into Ibiza isn’t that hard.
We visited San Antonio, where one middle-aged professional woman, from the Newcastle area, told us she took 3.5g of white coke through customs.
She told us: “It’s easy. Loads of people do it. I got it for £240 back home and just shoved it in my case.”
Pink cocaine is marketed as an exclusive upmarket drug originating in Colombia, in South America, where it has its own genre of music and is linked to the sex trade.
The Spanish drugs testing agency last year launched a campaign to make tourists and locals aware of its health risks, which include blurred vision, panic attacks, anxiety, heart problems and strokes.
A police source told the Majorca Daily Bulletin: “It’s so powerful that it causes severe hypertension and can lead to heart failure.
STRIKE FEAR
“It’s a bomb because it is ecstasy and amphetamines in powder form.
“People don’t know what they are consuming.”
Officials say it has become the scourge of Spain and the Balearics and in February claimed its first victim — a 14-year-old boy in Madrid.
With 17million Brits headed to Spain each year we wanted to probe the extent of the problem — and what we discovered will strike fear into the heart of every parent who allows their teen to holiday there.
San Antonio was full of the usual suspects; gangs of young lads, beautiful women in barely there outfits and bikinis and a few families dotted here and there.
On the bay, music pounded from the famous O Beach Ibiza — owned by Gary Lineker’s brother Wayne, 62, — as a giant hotdog was hoisted into the air with a trapeze artist dangling from the bizarre structure.
While venues had heavy security checks, tourists could easily access drugs along the seafront where migrants — mainly from Senegal in West Africa — openly sell balloons full of nitrous oxide, known as laughing gas or hippy crack, for five euros.
Despite being banned in Ibiza, the balloons are so popular the local newspaper has dubbed San Antonio the “laughing gas republic”.
So many are sold that the local landfill received 13 tons of empty canisters last month alone — equivalent to 20,000 industrial-sized bottles.
Behind each canister sold and every deflated colourful balloon left abandoned in the town is a dealer pushing a menu of drugs, including tusi.
Sellers are dotted 20 yards apart along the sweeping bay and time and again we were approached with cries of “Charlie, Charlie” (cocaine) and “tusi” as they aggressively punted their deadly goods.
We spoke to one dealer who offered us a gram of pink cocaine for 60 euros, or two for 110.
He said: “The pink is good. I can get you anything, anything you want.”
He was so forceful he insisted on putting his number into my phone before he would let us leave.
Groups of young women are especially targeted.
Tourist Oliwia Gaja, 19, of North London, said: “It’s all day long, they just don’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’re going to pull out a knife on you and they pull out a gas canister instead.”
During dinner at an open-fronted tapas bar along the beach, we watched as one of the sellers hid his stash in a nearby gap in the wall.
Public bins are full of empty canisters.
While many young people openly inhale balloons during the day, night time is when the problems really begin.
As the last rays of sunset disappeared, hundreds of partygoers who watched the spectacle from the rocks gathered their bags and headed to the West End.
Here, it’s hard to move for balloon sellers, who are even more open about what else is on offer.
Cries of “coke” and “tusi” are deafening even above the beats emanating from the pubs.
FAILED PRISON BREAK
In full view of bouncers, they approach tables of young tourists, many on their first holiday abroad.
Wrecked on booze, partygoers are easily tempted by the drug pushers and dozens can be seen sucking on laughing gas.
In the side streets, we watched as tourists handed over cash in exchange for small packages.
It wasn’t long before we persuaded three British lads to show us the brightly coloured tusi they had bought for 60 euros.
And they are not the only ones to unashamedly flash their stash.
With a bottle of water at 14 euros in the most popular clubs, it is easier to get high than hydrated in Ibiza.
Declan and his pal — whose identities we have chosen not to reveal — both 20 and on holiday from the North East of England, tell me they have spent about £1,800 “indulging”.
Declan says: “We’ve had a lot. We’ve spent loads of money.
“We’ve been offered everything. It’s been f***ing mental. We’ll be back again.
“It’s easy to bring drugs over here but we wouldn’t do it. They are the same price here as at home.”
We’ve been offered everything. It’s been f***ing mental. We’ll be back again
Declan
Most pink tusi sold comes into the island on ferries.
Cops made two busts on vessels in the past month alone, but with so much flooding in it is hard to keep on top of the problem.
The ex-commander of Ibiza’s Guardia Civil, Bartolome Del Amore told us: “Tourists of all nationalities come to Ibiza with drugs in their suitcase to pay for their holidays.
“They might come with anything between 500 and 1,000 ecstasy tablets, or nowadays tusi, which they sell to pay for their trips but also consume themselves.
“Some are very blasé about the way they pack them in their cases along with their clothes and take no extra security measures.
“Others go to greater lengths to hide them.”
Ibiza has long been associated with the drugs trade, with Brits increasingly selling them on the island.
We found a website selling everything from mushrooms to pink cocaine which is based in Britain but claims to run drug warehouses in Ibiza and France.
It offers to ship substances across Europe and proudly gives a UK email address for “advice”.
This week two UK men went on trial in Palma over a £200,000 Ibiza drugs bust.
LITTLE POLCE PRESENCE
The men, who have not been named but are aged 23 and 29, denied any involvement in the ketamine, cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy and laughing gas discovered at one of their homes.
One was also accused of taking part in a failed prison break.
He is alleged to have pistol- whipped an officer escorting a British prisoner to the dentist in Ibiza town.
Locals later claimed the inmate was a well-known drugs baron from the UK.
Three trial judges are due to deliver their verdict over the next few weeks, when the men are expected to be named.
There is little police presence, either.
Partygoers said they had caught the occasional glimpse of cops, while we saw just two female officers in three days.
While around 90,000 Brits flock to Ibiza each year not everyone is impressed.
As I headed to the airport for home, two lads from Manchester told me they had flown over for just a night to hit the huge clubs such as Pacha and Amnesia.
They missed their early morning flight so decided to spend a second night despite having no accommodation.
“We won’t be back,” one tells me. “We’ve had a great time and we’ve been out of it since we got here but it’s too expensive.”
For cops battling the fight against drugs on what was once considered an exclusive party island, it will be rave music to their ears.