They were eating macaroni in their car, a Peugeot 306, when two patrolling civil guards noticed a light in the middle of the night. It was a headlamp worn on the head of one of the two occupants, who was in the parking lot of a closed hotel next to the CM-401 in the municipality of Gálvez.
The agents suspect that they could be thieves, the establishment having suffered an attack, and decide to approach. It was in the early morning of May 25, 2020, in full state of alert due to the coronavirus in confined Spain.
Almost four years and four months later, the trial for this intervention was held this Wednesday at the Provincial Court of Toledo. Only one of the accused appeared, Albert, because the other, Francisco Javier, was declared in absentia. “I came down from Girona to Seville for my friend,” said Albert, who added that he did not know there were narcotic substances in the car.
The guards then recounted what they had seized from a car with luggage scattered inside: small quantities of cannabis sativa, amphetamines, MDMA with an average value of 22.29 amphetamines and LSD, in addition to 643.7 grams of opium. All valued at nearly 40,000 euros, according to the table of prices and purities of drugs on the illicit market established and published by the National Central Narcotics Office (OCNE).
Also a precision scale in a backpack, where most of the medicines were located, and two dogs, including an American Stafford, considered potentially dangerous in Spain.
Albert and Francisco Javier, the occupants of the car, became very nervous when they were surprised. Because the agents also found 990 euros in the car (17 notes of 20 and 13 of 50), which were hidden in the fuse box under the steering wheel. “I saw a screw that didn’t come from the factory,” said the astute guard who carried out the search. In addition, Albert had already been identified a few days earlier in the area by the Civil Guard and had a signed conviction dated November 19, 2019 for drug trafficking.
At the hearing, Albert said the money, “from a paycheck he had just received”, had been taken from a vending machine and that the drugs were intended for his own use. An exoneration supported by his lawyer, Mónica Tarradellas, who stressed that the 643.7 grams of opium were the latex extracted from the still unprocessed poppy. It is for this reason that he requested the free acquittal of Albert, a long-time diagnosed polydrug addict who is still undergoing pharmacological treatment. In the event of conviction, the court would apply the mitigating circumstance of drug addiction.
The prosecutor, on the other hand, maintained his accusation, citing a multitude of evidence dating back to a few months during which travel was prohibited. Nor was he convinced by the excuse of going down from Girona to Seville to look for a friend. Considered for sentencing, Albert risks five years in prison and a 100,000 euro fine.
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