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"Holy shit" was all I could say when I heard. A whirlwind of vicious rumours about policing and politics always blows through Ibiza like an ill wind, but seeing the news in a three-line head on the front page of Diario de Ibiza still came as a rude, rude shock.  

On the other hand, the binge drinking in Sant Antoni is an obvious, ugly, intimidating fact of life for many who are merely trying to have a week in the sun with the kids. Yet that scene is apparently immune from the clenched fist of the law. 

Of course, there is the superficially impressive figure of 450 people caught red handed with "sustancis estupefacientes" in three days. It sounds like a lot. Until you remember how many thousands of clubbers poured into each of the clubs over the past weekend. Space and DC10 accounted for 30,000 clubbers (a conservative estimate). Assuming the majority of those seizures were from those two main parties, that leaves the rate of drug busts at a paltry 1,5%. That's more than 98% of clubbers, according to the police's own statistics, who did nothing wrong. Which makes these club closures a monstrous punishment meted out to many for the sins of very few.  

One thing is certain: the people who are going to suffer most deserve it the least. The industry in Ibiza lives for summer. To be shut down for a month here is like an ordinary club being shut down for a year. First to get the chop are going to be the people who work the hardest for the least money – PRs, bartenders, cleaning staff – many of whom will have saved up all year to come out to the island for a summer of work and play (and will shortly be on a plane home); many more Ibicencos who rely on the summer months for their main income. It seems a cheap, ugly shot for the Government to take at its own people and economic stability. Almost as if they threw it before thinking quite what would happen when the blow fell.  

Then there are the thousands of people who've already booked and paid for holidays, and are eagerly anticipating their favourite events: Circoloco and Superfreq at DC10; Cocoon and Cream at Amnesia… Forget damaging the tourist industry: don't the powers that be realise people spend all year looking forward to one or two blinding nights in Ibiza, and will be bitterly disappointed and angry – especially at the timing? Since this action is in response to alleged problems in 2005-2006 many will wonder, rightly, why they waited until the start of the season (when most dedicated clubbers are already committed to their holidays) to make this brutal announcement. There is a whiff of bait-and-switch about it. Almost as if they waited till the last moment, till the frenzy of opening weekend got everybody excited about Ibiza, talking about Ibiza, planning for Ibiza, to drop the bomb. (Surely if they were that concerned following last season they could have spent the winter discussing and working with DC10, Amnesia and Bora Bora to implement changes or increase security?)

Ibiza-Voice sources assure us DC10, Amnesia and Bora Bora have banded together to take legal action against this ruling. Unless there is incredibly compelling information that's not yet in the public domain it is hard to see how the Government will justify this particular course of action and its timing. Speculation will be rife until the matter is settled, one way or another, and probably for long after.

Money, drugs, politics: it's a witches brew, and the authorities have stirred up a pot that may have been better left alone. The spectre of future arbitrary club closures is a kick in the teeth for the industry as everyone looks over their shoulder and wonders, "who's next?" now a political Pandora's Box is open it may be impossible to contain the heavy, ugly repercussions...

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