The court order only allowed access to Casa Lola to the security forces, the workers of the demolition company and municipal technicians and representatives, so the press had to wait a few meters from the entrance of the site. The mayor, Ángel Luis Guerrero, was supposed to meet them there, initially at ten o’clock in the morning, an hour later, but the statements were delayed until half past eleven. Guerrero apologized insistently, but it was clear that the situation inside the complex had exceeded all his expectations.
“We have found about 70 people“, he detailed, astonished. The vast majority were tourists who reported that they had paid to spend their vacation and were met with a police operation that forced them to vacate the place. “It is the modus operandi of this person [Paquita Sánchez Marsan, the owner of Casa Lola], who has been swindling people until the last day,” he lamented.
“We came to enjoy ourselves, we have been partying until six in the morning and at ten o’clock they woke us up to get us out”
The first to leave the premises was a group of 18 Mexicans who arrived on Ibiza two days earlier. “We came to enjoy ourselves, we have been partying until six in the morning and at ten o’clock they woke us up to get us out of the rooms”, reported one of them, who was completely unaware that this police operation was going to be deployed.
Evicted from Casa Lola
This young man also detailed that one of his companions was arrested for resisting the authorities (as well as two of the workers of Casa Lola) “because he thought he was being kidnapped”. Another of the tourists commented that they had paid two thousand euros per head to spend 15 days in this place. All of them had to look for new accommodation and went to the road with their suitcases, where a car came to pick them up.
The mayor explained that, in the police reports, several tourists detailed how much they had paid for their stay, but refused to provide this information. “The first thing these people should do is to report it to the Policía Local or the Guardia Civil,” he insisted.
In addition, the City Council will present all the documentation to the Prosecutor’s Office to act on a possible scam against all the evicted people. In this sense, the mayor reproached the Consell de Ibiza for not having sent tourism inspectors to Casa Lola yesterday to report the illegal tourist activity that was taking place in this complex.
Guerrero also explained that among the affected customers, there was a family of Asian origin of up to 30 members, including several minors and a baby. “They came in on Monday and they had only booked it four days before, so we think we are dealing with a possible case of fraud.”
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.