Two individuals were sentenced to one year in prison for setting up a trap whose sole aim was that the environmentalist Juan Clavero, very active in the defense of public roads in the Sierra de Grazalema, would end up in prison. José Miguel Herrera, director of the Breña del Agua farm (which one of these roads crosses), and Manuel Alcaide, who left the drugs in the vehicle, were convicted of the crime of false declaration seven years after the activist was surprised by the Civil Guard transporting 47 grams of cocaine in his car which had been placed there. The two other accused, to whom the prosecution collaborated in the events, were acquitted.
The sentence, subject to appeal, limits the crime to the person responsible for placing the drugs and the mastermind of the plan. The two coordinated to place the drugs behind the passenger seat of Clavero’s van and ensure that the Civil Guard found it. “Both knew that the facts they reported were false,” concludes the resolution, which emphasizes that their interest in the discovery of the drug and the accusation of a crime against Clavero “exceeds the normal interest that any person can have. citizen”.
The Prosecutor’s Office requested that each of the four defendants be sentenced to one and a half years in prison for false accusations, while Clavero requested seven years in prison, considering that crimes of illegal detention and criminal organization had also been committed. Finally, two of the defendants (former managers of the property) were exonerated from all liability and the other two (one of whom, the manager) benefited from a reduced sentence (both in terms of prison sentence and in terms of fine) by applying unjustified mitigating measures. delays.
In addition to the prison sentence, which will probably be suspended because it is less than two and a half years, the Provincial Court of Cádiz imposes on those convicted the payment of a fine of 2,700 euros each and joint compensation of 20,000 euros to Clavero . , that he spent a night in a cell without knowing why, and ten days exposed to the media as a suspected drug trafficker.
The magistrates believe that the victim of this plan could have been any environmentalist involved in the defense of public roads, but it turned out to be Clavero, a prestigious activist recognized in Cádiz, former director of the Sierra Natural Park by Grazalema.
For Ecologistas en Acción, the sanctions “do not correspond to the seriousness of the facts proven during the trial”. Clavero has a “bittersweet” feeling: he is satisfied that the existence of a conspiracy has been corroborated, but he regrets the limited nature of the conviction, which is why his lawyers are studying the possibility of appealing to the Court supreme.
“Behind the passenger seat. “Delete this”
The sentence, to which this media had access, includes a story which places the origin of the events in an agreement between the two condemned to “cause problems” to the members of the Ecologists in Action association and the Platform for Defense of The Public Roads of the Sierra, which have been very active in protesting against the usurpation of public roads that cross different rural properties in the area, including Finca La Breña.
Thus, when José Miguel Herrera, manager of the farm, learned that a march had been called to cross the land by public road, he conspired with Manuel Alcaide to have him participate in the march by posing as a sympathizer environmental group and, surreptitiously, put drugs in the vehicle of one of the activists, then notified the Civil Guard.
This is how it happened and on August 26, Alcaide attended the march, introduced himself to Juan Clavero and, once finished, asked to be taken back to a point, although he got off of the vehicle earlier. By then, Alcaide had already placed the drugs in the car and Herrera had met with a Seprona agent he knew, to whom he told that an “infiltrator” in the march had told him that the participants were hiding a significant quantity of drugs. drugs in Clavero’s van.
Shortly after this meeting between the agent and the manager of Finca La Breña, the command received a call from a public telephone: “Hello, good afternoon, listen, I was calling to report that today , between four thirty and seven o’clock. In the afternoon, a white Volkswagen van will enter the town of Benamahoma, with a significant quantity of drugs to be consumed during the Coto de Bornos festivities.
To complete his plan, Herrera assured that the Civil Guard was tracking the environmentalist with a few WhatsApp messages to the agent he knew: “They will come to you in 2 minutes” and “only one car”. A patrol was already waiting for Clavero, who the officers chained and arrested almost immediately, after a few minutes without being able to locate the package. They had to call Herrera again to tell him exactly where they had hidden it: “Behind the passenger seat, delete that.” » They ended up finding 29 papers containing 47 grams of cocaine and eight pieces of hashish with a gross weight of four grams.
Reduction of penalties and exemptions from liability
The Civil Guard agent was not charged for his possible participation in the events and of the four who were, two were acquitted, since the court understands that his participation in the events is not proven, which the prosecutor appreciated it. One of them attended the meeting with the Seprona agent and the other is suspected of being the one who called from the public telephone, but they were not convicted because the video and audio in which this participation is confirmed have not been provided. .
The court reduces the sentence by six months (compared to what the prosecution had requested) due to excessive delays. The judicial investigation began in December 2017, the defendants declared themselves under investigation in March 2018 and were not judged until October 2024. “The treatment was singularly long and without justified reason,” specifies the judgment. “The slowness of justice and the delaying tactics of the defenses end up benefiting the criminals and harming their victims,” lamented the environmentalists in a press release.
The Court also significantly lowered Clavero’s sentencing expectations by limiting the focus of the trial to only the crime of making a false statement. According to the court, the defendants did not know during the investigation that what they had done could also constitute illegal detention and integration into a criminal organization, so exposing them to punishment for these crimes could violate their right to effective judicial protection.
The magistrates also reduced the compensation claims of Clavero, who for a week was presented in the media as an alleged drug trafficker, and completely rejected those of Ecologistas en Acción, the entity of which he is a well-known member. known, and who understood that his image was also damaged by the episode.
Nor do they order Finca la Breña to pay compensation in the alternative. The entity owns the property through which the usurped public road that the activists claim passes, and it was administered by Herrera, the mastermind of the plan. However, the magistrates exempted him from any responsibility because they understood that the false complaint filed by Herrera, his manager, did not fall within the “normal or abnormal exercise” of his functions, and that the entity could not accept what she did. Warden, with whom he had no relationship. “Very surprising,” says Ecologistas en Acción.
