Arrested in Ibiza: clubs, quantities and the season

What to decide before the season sweeps you on

The opening decision is whether to explain yourself to officers without a lawyer. At a club door, on a boat or in an apartment, officers ask direct questions about what you carry, what you meant to do with it and who it belongs to. An answer given under stress, in a language that may not be yours, is written down and relied upon later. A lawyer and an interpreter let you choose how much to say. Waiting costs a little time and does not damage your credibility.

The next decision concerns what you say about the substance itself. Whether something was for personal use or for supply is decided on the whole picture, and an offhand remark about sharing with friends, or about having brought extra, can be read as supply. Do not try to explain amounts, packaging or cash without advice. What you say about the amount is as important as the amount.

A further decision concerns your companions. Friends who were present may be asked for statements, and anything said between you in the cell, in the car or in a group chat may be examined. Do not agree a version of events. Statements that match too neatly look rehearsed, and independent accounts carry more weight.

Finally, there is the question of the flight. Everyone is leaving at the end of the season, and the pull to go home is strong. Leaving without understanding what has been recorded can turn a manageable file into a warrant. Ask what the papers require before you book anything.

Readers who reach this page from a beach, a boat or a hotel balcony

A visitor has been stopped at a club entrance and a search has turned up a substance in a pocket or a bag. They say it was for themselves, perhaps for a group of friends, and they are now facing questions about quantity, packaging and cash. They have a flight tomorrow, a job on Monday and a family that does not yet know.

A passenger on a boat, a yacht or a charter has been searched on landing. The vessel belongs to somebody else, the substance may belong to somebody else, and each person aboard is now asked what they knew. They want to understand how the law looks at a person who was only a guest.

A friend or relative at home has had a muddled call from somebody held on the island. They know only that a substance is involved. They want to know how serious it is, who can attend the station within hours and what can be done from a distance.

Some readers are seasonal workers, in bars, clubs or hotels, who have been stopped after a search of shared accommodation. Others are residents who have been asked about a package or a parcel. Each has a different position, and each wants to know whether they are a suspect or a witness.

All of them need to be told what the paper in their hand is, and what it is not.

What a case does to a season, a booking and a career

A season on the island is built around dates. Flights, rooms, shifts and tickets are fixed weeks ahead and priced accordingly. An arrest tears all of it up at once. A person held may lose a place in a rented flat, a job in a bar or a booking on a boat, and the group they came with must decide whether to wait or go home.

For visitors, phones, wallets and bags may be held, which makes it hard to pay, call home or rebook. Prescription medicines can become an urgent problem if they are in a bag the police kept. Passports may be retained, and a person may be unable to travel.

For seasonal workers, the loss of a job can mean the loss of housing, because accommodation is often provided by the employer. A person held may return to find nothing waiting. Tell your lawyer about housing and wages, so those needs are raised.

For those with careers elsewhere, the concern is a record. Professions that require a clean record, such as aviation, finance, medicine, teaching or work with children, may ask about police contact, and failing to answer honestly can be a separate problem. Ask your lawyer how the case will be recorded and what must be disclosed.

Families face the cost of flights, translation and legal work, and the strain of not knowing. Parents sometimes feel pressed to settle at once with anyone who offers a way out, and that is when mistakes are made.

Conduct that tends to turn use into supply

• Do not explain amounts or packaging without advice. Offhand remarks about sharing or about carrying extra can be read as supply.
• Do not sign what you cannot read. Ask for an interpreter and a copy.
• Do not agree a version of events with friends. Statements that match too neatly look rehearsed.
• Do not discuss the case in group chats. Messages can be requested and examined, and a casual line can be read as an admission.
• Do not delete messages, photographs or call history. Deleting looks like concealment, and deleted material can often be recovered.
• Do not carry anything for a stranger or for a friend of a friend. Whatever is inside becomes your problem.
• Do not pay a person who says he can make it go away. This is a known route to a worse situation.
• Do not board a flight without advice. Check what the papers require before you move.

The folder that makes a opening conversation useful

Preparation shortens the opening call. Gather the following, in paper and as photographs, even if some of it exists only on a friend's phone.

• Every paper you were handed. Photograph both sides of each page, including those you cannot read. Dates, stamps and the issuing office matter.
• Identity documents. Passport or identity card, residence papers and any permit.
• A timeline. Written alone, with times and places, who was with you, what you carried, where you got it and what you meant to do with it.
• Booking records. Flights, hotel, boat or club tickets and receipts, which fix your whereabouts.
• Cash and spending records. Bank statements and receipts, which help to explain any money found with you.
• Names and contacts. Companions, hosts, boat crew, staff and any witness. Groups scatter quickly at the end of a season.
• Messages and photographs. Keep everything from the period, unaltered, including material that seems unhelpful.
• Medical information. Any condition, prescription or treatment that explains what you carried.

When a night on the island has an echo at home

Ibiza receives people from many countries, and a case often has threads that run elsewhere. A visitor may have family in Italy, a job in another country and a record that a foreign authority may eventually see. A lawyer needs to understand the whole picture from the outset.

Documents are the recurring difficulty. Spanish papers must be translated before a lawyer or an authority in another country can use them, and papers from elsewhere, such as proof of employment, a prescription or a medical record, may need formal certification before a Spanish court accepts them. Ask which documents truly require it, and avoid paying for translations that nobody will read.

Distance matters. The island is separated from the mainland by water, and offices keep their own hours. A call from a station late in the evening may reach a family at home when offices are closed. Agree a rhythm for updates and name a single relative who receives them.

If you are a foreign national, your consulate can be told if you ask. It can contact your family and give a list of lawyers. It does not choose a lawyer, pay for a lawyer or discuss the merits. The consulate may be on the mainland, which affects how quickly help arrives.

Where a case crosses a border, lawyers in each should work together, so that a statement made in either place does not damage your position in the other. A record made in Spain may be asked about later at home, and your lawyer can explain how.

How the studio takes on a case from the island

Write or call from anywhere. Give your name, location, whether you are held or free, and the date of the event. Send photographs of every paper. A reply follows promptly, and urgent matters are looked at outside ordinary hours, because arrests in nightlife districts happen late.

The opening call is about facts and options. We ask what you carried, what officers asked and what you signed. We explain what each paper is, what is likely to happen next and what each choice costs. We tell you plainly what we do not yet know.

We work in Italian and English. When a Spanish lawyer, an interpreter or a translator is needed, we arrange it and set out the cost beforehand. The mandate is signed by email and costs are agreed in writing before work begins.

We coordinate with a lawyer on the island, so that strategy is agreed and you receive a single account. We report after each step. The studio has offices in Rome, Milan and Naples, and meetings can be held by video for families and for people abroad.

We do not forecast results. We describe procedure, set out options and leave the decision to you.

Questions worth asking about the substance and the setting

• Is the paper in my hand a notice, a charge or a summons, and which authority issued it?
• How does the law separate personal use from supply, and which parts of my situation will be examined?
• If the substance was found on a boat or in shared accommodation, how is responsibility divided among those present?
• If cash, scales or messages were found, how are they read, and what can be said about them?
• If I was a guest on a vessel, what must the file show about what I knew?
• Can I leave Spain while this is open, and how will notices reach me if I do?
• Who may see my file, and can I have it translated?
• Will any record appear in my own country, and could it affect my work or travel?
• What will you need from me each week, and how will you report back?

Words on papers about substances

• Personal consumption. Possession for a person's own use, which is dealt with administratively when it occurs in public places.
• Possession for supply. Possession with the aim of giving or selling to others, which is a criminal offence. No single figure separates it from personal use.
• Circumstances. The whole picture the court looks at: amount, division, packaging, scales, cash, messages and setting.
• Search. Examination of a person, bag, vehicle, boat or room by officers, often at a club entrance or on landing.
• Police custody. A hold by the police that the law limits strictly, counted from the moment of detention.
• Interpreter. A person who translates during questioning. You may ask for an interpreter, and you should ask expressly.
• Summons. A formal order to appear or answer, which should never be left unanswered.