The prosecution of the network that introduced 73 tons of cocaine through companies in El Campello and Madrid is annulled

The National Court orders the judge to wait for the investigations to conclude to issue a new order on the organization of the former head of the UDEF that had more than 20 million in his homes.

INFORMACIÓN

The National Court has annulled the prosecution of fifteen individuals and legal entities for the network, had the collaboration of a police inspector, former head of the UDEF in Madrid, to introduce through a company in El Campello and another in Madrid a total of 39 containers with some 73 tons of cocaine valued at 2,060 million euros. At the head of Abadix Fruits, the company domiciled in El Campello, was a married couple who had been prosecuted in what is considered to be one of the largest cases opened in Spain for drug trafficking and money laundering.

According to a resolution of the Third Section of the Criminal Chamber of the National Court, the court fully upholds the appeal of the Anti-Drug Prosecutor’s Office against the prosecution agreed on February 12 and extended the following day by the magistrate of Plaza 1 of the Instruction Section of the Central Court of Instance. The Chamber concludes that this partial prosecution, which did not include all the accused, was premature and that the investigation must conclude before formalizing the accusations in a single order, with an individualized description of the indications attributed to each investigated.

Drugs in fruit containers

The indictment referred to the organisation allegedly led by Ignacio T. D., to which the investigation attributes the introduction into Spain of more than 73 tonnes of cocaine between 2020 and 2024 through containers of fruit imported by companies in Madrid and El Campello. The summary also links the case with alleged laundering structures in Spain and abroad, as well as with the former head of the UDEF Óscar S. G., investigated for his alleged collaboration with the network facilitating the entry of containers with drugs.

The Police arrested this police command following the seizure in October 2024 of more than thirteen tons of cocaine – 13,062 kilos – in a container with bananas imported by the El Campello company and seized more than 20 million euros in cash hidden in their homes in Madrid and Dénia.

The revoked order had prosecuted, among others, José Miguel B. C. and Vilma Janet A. B., the couple residing in El Campello who were in charge of the fruit company. This couple, defended in the case by the lawyer Francisco Miguel Galiana Botella, did not enter prison after being on the run for several months as a result of the seizure of the drug. For his wife, provisional release was agreed and for the man, house arrest was decreed for being sick and needing dialysis treatment continuously, so since then he has been confined in his luxurious villa in El Campello.

Role of those investigated

According to the account collected by the National Court, the company from El Campello would have acted as an importer through which the narcotic substance was introduced. However, the Third Section warns that the initial resolution did not sufficiently specify the individual role of several investigated, as is the case of El Campello’s partner, nor did it clearly explain their relationship with the alleged criminal organization.

The magistrates stress that the indictment must specify not only who supports the formal accusation, but also what facts are attributed to him and why there are rational indications of criminality. In the case of several investigated, it considers that the description was “very brief” and always appeared subordinate to the alleged conduct of the alleged ringleader, without sufficiently detailing the specific intervention of each one.

The Prosecutor’s Office defended that the investigation was still open and that there were relevant proceedings to be carried out or completed. The Criminal Chamber accepts this argument and lists pending proceedings such as international rogatory commissions, analysis of intercepted devices, asset reports, identification of interlocutors in encrypted communications and statements of those under investigation. For the court, the volume and relevance of these proceedings prevent it from affirming that the core elements are already closed for all the defendants.

The National Court also questions the decision to fragment the prosecutions without having opened separate pieces or explaining a clear criterion of division. In the opinion of the Chamber, separating some investigated from others now can generate procedural disorder, successive appeals and possible contradictions in a case marked by the connection between the alleged drug trafficking and the subsequent laundering of profits.

The resolution does not archive the case or exclude future prosecutions. What it orders is  to postpone that decision until the investigation phase is concluded. Then, the investigator must issue a new order, unique and structured as he deems appropriate, in which the evidence against each natural or legal person and their relationship with the alleged criminal organization are individualized. The Court also declares that its resolution is final and that there is no appeal.