Police chief or mafia boss

PALMA’S police commissioner has been arrested in connection with a long-standing and notorious corruption case that has plagued the city authorities. 

Rafael Estarellas and four others will be investigated over allegations that they were criminally compliant in the homophobic abuse and humiliation doled out to a gay police officer who was forced to leave the service. 

Estarellas also stands accused of collusion in the systematic extortion and blackmail of businessmen and enterprises throughout the city, conducted with the knowledge of senior politicians. 

The list of crimes the commissioner may be charged with is significant and hugely embarrassing to the city. It reads more like the CV of a mafia figure, including coercion, extortion, bribery, and the concealment and alteration of key evidence. 

He is accused of working hand in glove with a criminal organisation profiting from Palma’s deep underworld network of clubs, prostitution and drugs dealing, and his case is certain to reveal even more alarming details if it goes to trial.