Playa de las Americas is known as the party capital of Tenerife, a long strip lined with bars, but when the sun goes down it becomes a completely different road to the one thousands of tourists travel on every day. The Veronicas strip is where tourists can find bars, cafes and fast food joints, being relatively quiet during the day as many Brits wander up and down looking for something to eat and drink.
But as night falls, the stretch of sand comes back to life, leaving its sleepy appearance behind as thousands of young tourists flock to the Canaries’ nightlife hotspot. In recent weeks, the island has been thrust into the spotlight, with every aspect of the tourist trap being scrutinised from around the world following the disappearance of Jay Slater, the Manchester Evening News reports from Tenerife.
Former police detective Mark Williams-Thomas has been on the island in recent weeks to help Jay’s family search for clues into their son’s disappearance. He claimed to have “established links to a criminal underworld” linked to drugs while investigating Jay’s disappearance.
Earlier this week, an investigation by The Express, the Liverpool ECHO’s sister paper, compared a network of clubs on the island to a “new Amsterdam”. It revealed that organised crime groups are allegedly circumventing Spain’s cannabis laws, with drug dealers mainly targeting young tourists.
The men walked up and down Calle Veronicas this afternoon (Saturday) and back along the parallel street, Avenida de Rafael Puig Lluvina. During the five minutes it took, journalist Stephen Topping reported: “We were stopped three times by men offering us cannabis or asking if we smoked it, and we saw four other holidaymakers targeted in exactly the same way during that time.”
It is legal for Canary Islanders to smoke cannabis in private places, including clubs where locals can sign up to smoke. But the Express has seen British tourists targeted and allowed to smoke in a club in Playa de las Americas.
One resident said: “It’s illegal and the police do nothing to stop it. It’s like Amsterdam today. The tourist areas have many more smoking clubs than, for example, the capital, where the local population is much larger. My small hometown alone has 10 to 12 clubs.”
In his video update yesterday, former police officer Mark Williams-Thomas said: “We have yet to find any evidence of third-party criminal involvement in Jay’s disappearance, although we have established links to a criminal underworld associated with drug dealing.” Convicted drug dealer Ayub Qassim, 31, was allegedly one of two men who invited Jay back to a secluded Airbnb before he disappeared – but local police said he was “not relevant” to the investigation.
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