IBIZA NARCO: This island will never be free of drugs...the tourism depends on it

A FORMER Ibiza drug boss who hinted that he got away with kidnapping and mutilation in his day reckons the island will never be clean of cocaine because tourism relies on it.

- MARK JEFFERIES

Jon Imanol Sapieha Candela, known as El Sapo, was arrested in 2011 for drug trafficking and money laundering - but after serving less than four years in prison he now lives in a conservation reserve he created in Kenya.

He boasts of running one of the Spanish island's biggest drug gangs for 30 years.

He started off by bringing in 120,000kg of hashish a year before moving on to ecstasy in the 90s, when he sold a million pills a month.

Candela then got into cocaine in the 2000s when he shipped it from Colombia.

He told a documentary: "People come to Ibiza to party and many think they need cocaine. The market was huge.

"Los Miami was the biggest group for drug distribution. Me, I was there, but I was not one of the founders, I was the supplier.

"The founder was a friend and I used to supply 400 to 500kg [of cocaine] maybe four times a year. They were probably making more than €58million a year."

Police caught one of his boats with 216kg of cocaine on it but he claims he stole it back by digging a hole in a wall at a station. He even placed trackers on police boats to evade capture.