It was an exposé by "The Times" in 1969 that started it. Corruption within the Metropolitan Police in London was of such a scale that it was like "catching the Archbishop of Canterbury in bed with a prostitute". Three years later, a further exposé, by "The Sunday Mirror", revealed that the head of the Flying Squad had been on holiday with a Soho businessman and all-round villain by the name of Jimmy Humphreys. He and his wife, Rusty, a former stripper, were known as the king and queen of Soho, though there was also an emperor, Bernie Silver, who had mentored Jimmy.
The Met Police corruption of the '60s and the '70s was to a large extent centred on one small part of central London. Soho, the district of clubs, dives, strip joints, porn shops and prostitutes, was a gold mine for the powerful and for the corrupt. Jimmy and Bernie had the Obscene Publications Squad (OPS) in their pay. Jimmy and Rusty made a fortune, though Jimmy resented the fact that the fortune was not as large as it might have been; it was lessened because of the amount he had to pay the police. One of those policemen was the head of the OPS, Detective Chief Superintendent "Wicked" Bill Moody, who was so bent that he established an unofficial licensing system. New porn shops could only open with the agreement of Humphreys and Silver and with weekly payments made to the OPS.
The press exposés led to a change. In came Sir Robert Mark as the Met Police Commissioner and he brought with him Detective Chief Superintendent Bert Wickstead. It was he, Wickstead, who found the pretext with which to collar Jimmy, and once collared, Jimmy squealed. Loudly and repeatedly. The supergrass's evidence resulted in the conviction of numerous police officers and spawned "Operation Countryman", a wider investigation into police corruption which also embraced the City of London Police but which was ultimately to lead to no convictions.
It was said of Jimmy Humphreys that he had gained that much money from his porn businesses that he didn't know what to do with it. So much money, and it came from one small part of a city, a small part that was controlled by a few whose businesses were those of clubs and sex.
Remember what Manu Onieva once said. That he wished there were ten Punta Ballenas. So much money. How much money is shifted in Punta Ballena? Jaime Amador of "Preferente" quotes one source. "There is too much money in play." Too much money in one small part of Calvia, one small part of Mallorca that is dominated by clubs and sex. One small part where there is, to quote Paul Smith of Carnage, "a war of large businesses against small businesses".
The revelations are coming thick and fast. The police chief in Marratxí, Antonio Ledesma, arrested on Friday, and Calvia's police chief, José Antonio Navarro, were allegedly involved with what "Ultima Hora" calls a "bogus" gestoría. Such activity, whatever the nature of the gestoría, is incompatible with their police duties. Then there are the activities of this gestoría, those involving the taking on and laying off of staff with businesses along Punta Ballena, a service for which one business has admitted paying 6,000 euros bi-monthly in black.
When the police corruption affair first surfaced, it was suggested to me that it would all be quietly forgotten in a couple of days. I didn't think so. I didn't think so for one moment. The anti-corruption prosecutors are far too independent for that to happen. Moreover, and despite what one might think of Mallorca and Spain, these are not the days of the late '60s and 1970s when information was strictly controlled and when it required truly campaigning journalism in order to root out the truth. The Magalluf allegations are of the contemporary age. There is far too much at stake for there to be some sort of whitewash.
But think of those days some forty or more years ago. Think of Bill Moody and his unofficial licensing system. Think of how smaller and new porn businesses were dominated by Humphreys and Silver. And think of the web that was eventually discovered. It was a long time ago and in a different country, but some of the ingredients are not dissimilar.
It took ages in those days for evidence to be amassed. A source close to the Magalluf investigation says that "they have never had so much documentation in a corruption case". These are very different days when it comes to unearthing potential evidence. The investigation already has more than a thousand emails to consider. They are emails to and from politicians, businesspeople, police officers. Think how differently things might have been had such technology existed when Mark and Wickstead vowed to clean up the Met. And think who else might have been implicated.
Showing posts with label Police corruption. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Police corruption. Show all posts
Monday, September 15, 2014
Wednesday, September 03, 2014
It Just Got Worse: Magalluf
Tired though I am and tired though no doubt you are with the constant flow of the stuff of the gutter that pours out of Magalluf, such weariness cannot allow us to close our eyes and wish for sleep. Too many eyes, one now fears, have been closed for too long. We have been jolted wide awake. We hadn't believed that it could get worse, but it has. The arrest of the chief of police on corruption allegations marks a low that is hard to conceive. If we had believed that Magalluf couldn't get any lower, we now know that it can.
Through the numerous debates, arguments, discussions that have been played out via social media over the past months, there has been one theme which has been a constant but also one that has not dared to speak its name in established media. The cover has been blown. The gloves can come off. Its name can be spoken of. Police corruption.
It is easy, perhaps too easy, for contributors to social media to invoke the C-word, but the regularity with which it has been referred to has suggested that at least some of these observations have been more than just glib or ill-considered rants, some of which may well have been inspired by personal grievances which owe nothing to any hint of corruption. Some of these observations had greater substance, and prosecutors have been provided with evidence of this substance, including, we understand, video of substances being planted. And yes, social media had suggested that such a practice had been occurring.
When news broke at the end of last week that some business owners along the Punta Ballena had been talking to prosecutors, I remarked (on social media) that things could get very interesting. I hadn't anticipated how quickly things would get interesting or quite how damning these things could be. The arrest of the chief of police is the nadir. Or is it?
We learn that the investigation the prosecutors are now embarked upon is "complex", that there is a web of "interests". The arrest marks the start not the end. Investigations by anti-corruption prosecutors can lead into areas that many might prefer that they didn't. What was the starting-point for all that has come out about Matas and Urdangarin? The investigation of Andratx's mayor, Eugenio Hidalgo. The prosecutors are terriers. Horrach may have been compromised over the Infanta, but he has typically been fearless. Such bravery is now demanded. Nothing less will suffice, for there is something rotten, really, really rotten in the state of Magalluf. It is not the sex video or the drunkenness. It is not even the prostitutes. It goes deeper. Many have said it, if only privately, many have thought it. The lawlessness which has been alluded to in Magalluf, we now begin to realise, is not only the lawlessness of bad behaviour and of street crime. It is, if allegations are to be believed, the law itself. When trust in the police evaporates, then what is left? The sadness is that this trust, for many in Magalluf, evaporated some time ago. For this betrayal of trust, there is now potential payback, and it is in the hands of prosecutors to deliver.
And where oh where does this latest development leave Manu Onieva? He once said that he wished that there were ten Punta Ballenas strung across Calvia because the one that does exist generates such richness. Ah yes, the richness, one that has, during the period of his administration, been made poor by the endless negative publicity, by the endless accusations, by the endless claims of improvements, most of them disputed by those with first-hand experience of what goes on around Punta Ballena. And now this. The chief of police locked up. Onieva's chief of police locked up. If there had been any lingering thought that Onieva would stand again as mayor, that thought must surely have now been dispelled. He should consider his position in any event.
And what on earth does Bauzá make of this? Onieva denied in an interview at the weekend that the president had applied pressure on him in light of the original sex video. Bauzá has closely aligned himself with the transformation of Magalluf. A chief of police entering prison was never part of that transformation. And what will the media outside of Mallorca and Spain make of this? Another brickbat with which to beat the resort?
Some good can come of all this, but the chances are that there will be more pain. Who knows where the prosecutors might go, who knows who might become implicated, who knows what this might mean for the future of Magalluf? What we do know is that it is those riches of Punta Ballena to which Onieva referred that have brought us to where we are today. To three police officers in jail and under investigation. There will be some worried people in Magalluf.
Through the numerous debates, arguments, discussions that have been played out via social media over the past months, there has been one theme which has been a constant but also one that has not dared to speak its name in established media. The cover has been blown. The gloves can come off. Its name can be spoken of. Police corruption.
It is easy, perhaps too easy, for contributors to social media to invoke the C-word, but the regularity with which it has been referred to has suggested that at least some of these observations have been more than just glib or ill-considered rants, some of which may well have been inspired by personal grievances which owe nothing to any hint of corruption. Some of these observations had greater substance, and prosecutors have been provided with evidence of this substance, including, we understand, video of substances being planted. And yes, social media had suggested that such a practice had been occurring.
When news broke at the end of last week that some business owners along the Punta Ballena had been talking to prosecutors, I remarked (on social media) that things could get very interesting. I hadn't anticipated how quickly things would get interesting or quite how damning these things could be. The arrest of the chief of police is the nadir. Or is it?
We learn that the investigation the prosecutors are now embarked upon is "complex", that there is a web of "interests". The arrest marks the start not the end. Investigations by anti-corruption prosecutors can lead into areas that many might prefer that they didn't. What was the starting-point for all that has come out about Matas and Urdangarin? The investigation of Andratx's mayor, Eugenio Hidalgo. The prosecutors are terriers. Horrach may have been compromised over the Infanta, but he has typically been fearless. Such bravery is now demanded. Nothing less will suffice, for there is something rotten, really, really rotten in the state of Magalluf. It is not the sex video or the drunkenness. It is not even the prostitutes. It goes deeper. Many have said it, if only privately, many have thought it. The lawlessness which has been alluded to in Magalluf, we now begin to realise, is not only the lawlessness of bad behaviour and of street crime. It is, if allegations are to be believed, the law itself. When trust in the police evaporates, then what is left? The sadness is that this trust, for many in Magalluf, evaporated some time ago. For this betrayal of trust, there is now potential payback, and it is in the hands of prosecutors to deliver.
And where oh where does this latest development leave Manu Onieva? He once said that he wished that there were ten Punta Ballenas strung across Calvia because the one that does exist generates such richness. Ah yes, the richness, one that has, during the period of his administration, been made poor by the endless negative publicity, by the endless accusations, by the endless claims of improvements, most of them disputed by those with first-hand experience of what goes on around Punta Ballena. And now this. The chief of police locked up. Onieva's chief of police locked up. If there had been any lingering thought that Onieva would stand again as mayor, that thought must surely have now been dispelled. He should consider his position in any event.
And what on earth does Bauzá make of this? Onieva denied in an interview at the weekend that the president had applied pressure on him in light of the original sex video. Bauzá has closely aligned himself with the transformation of Magalluf. A chief of police entering prison was never part of that transformation. And what will the media outside of Mallorca and Spain make of this? Another brickbat with which to beat the resort?
Some good can come of all this, but the chances are that there will be more pain. Who knows where the prosecutors might go, who knows who might become implicated, who knows what this might mean for the future of Magalluf? What we do know is that it is those riches of Punta Ballena to which Onieva referred that have brought us to where we are today. To three police officers in jail and under investigation. There will be some worried people in Magalluf.
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