https://github.com/ghik/opinionated-scala/wiki/Packages-and-imports#local-imports
Local imports are very nice tool to minimize the impact of your imports and protect yourself from accidentally polluting too wide namespaces with imports that you need only in small, local context. That's especially important when using wildcard imports (see later).
Cay Horstmann, Scala for the Impatient, §7.8 (Imports can be anywhere)
In Scala, an import statement can be anywhere, not just at the top of a file.