The National Court considers that the judge did not inform the defense of the essential evidence against the partner of the former head of the UDEF in Madrid.

Cerrada Efe 02 APR 2025 14:13 – Updated Apr 03, 2025 9:16 AM

The Criminal Chamber of the National Court has agreed  to release with precautionary measures the man considered to be the head of the organization that imported 13 tons of cocaine through a company in El Campello and considered by the National Police as a partner of the former head of the UDEF in Madrid imprisoned for collaborating with this network of drug traffickers to facilitate the entry of drugs into Spain. The court has upheld the appeal of Ignacio T.’s lawyer, Juan Carlos Sánchez Peribáñez, and has considered that his right to defense was violated by not providing him with the essential elements of the case when he requested his release because he was under summary secrecy.

The jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court indicates that this is a violation of the right of defense and the right to personal liberty and even if the case is declared secret, the investigating judges are obliged to provide the essential elements to the defenses of those investigated. This mistake has been repeated on several occasions in different courts of the province and has forced the release of a large number of defendants accused of drug trafficking, many of them defended by the lawyer Francisco Miguel Galiana Botella, lawyer for the defense of the couple from El Campello who is in charge of the fruit company that imported the container where the 13 tons of cocaine were seized last October.  the largest cache of this drug seized in Spain.

According to the order of the National Court, to which Efe has had access, his lawyer asked the court on January 9 to transfer “certain elements of the essential proceedings to be able to challenge the provisional detention”. That same day he requested his release and stated that he had not been given access to those elements, and days later, in an order of January 17, Magistrate Luis Francisco de Jorge rejected his request.

The lawyer then appealed to the Chamber and the Third Section has partially upheld the appeal and has declared the nullity of that order so that the investigator can issue another in which, “with a motivation relating to access to the interested elements of the proceedings, he decides on the request for release”.

In this new order, the Chamber indicates, the judge “tacitly recognizes that the essential elements to challenge the arrest were not provided because the secrecy of the proceedings was declared, not having concluded the analysis” of the seized effects and the investigation “for the location and seizure of illicit assets in various countries, being advisable to maintain secrecy”.

However, the investigator partially lifted the secrecy and again refused provisional release “on the basis of circumstances different from those that were taken into account in the resolution that agreed to the nullity of the previous one,” the court indicates.

From that order it is clear that the court “considers the denial of access to the essential elements as an irregularity that can be remedied, when it is an injury to the essential content of the rights to effective judicial protection, legality and personal liberty, which can only be restored by revoking the deprivation of liberty, since the right of access must be effective before imprisonment is agreed or maintained“.

Therefore, according to the magistrates, that resolution “violates the retroactivity associated with the declaration of nullity of the previous order agreed by the Third Section”.

The Chamber bases its decision on jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court, which has determined that access to the essential elements to challenge imprisonment is a guarantee of the right of defense and “protects against arbitrary deprivation of liberty.”

According to the same case law, it adds, the “secrecy of the proceedings cannot cover the facts of which the person under investigation is accused and the reasons for the deprivation of liberty, nor prevent the party who has requested it from having access to the elements of the proceedings essential to question and challenge the legality of the deprivation of liberty”.

In this case, the access requested by the defense on the same day that he also requested release, “was not granted before deciding on the request for freedom, but in the same resolution that agrees to deny freedom.” “Therefore, in accordance with the doctrine of the Constitutional Court, the precautionary deprivation of liberty is maintained in the appealed order in violation of the fundamental rights to defense and liberty of the investigated, since neither he nor his procedural representation could prevent the prolongation of that personal situation, through allegations made with direct knowledge of the elements of the proceedings on which said precautionary measure was based.”

This Wednesday, after learning of the release of the alleged head of the organization in Spain, the magistrate of the central court of Instruction number 1 of the National Court has agreed to lift the secrecy of the preliminary proceedings that are being instructed on this case of drug trafficking and police corruption, except for a few separate pieces.

The police and National Court investigation links Ignacio.T to the 13 tonnes of cocaine imported from El Campello last year and to another 1,605 kilos seized in Algeciras in 2021. The magistrate of the National Court stated in Ignacio T.’s arrest warrant of November 8 that he was the real owner of Abadix Fruits, the company based in El Campello. In addition to this company, the investigation links him to the use of the companies Trapani Export, Cottone and Strawberry to introduce containers loaded with cocaine into Spain. He is also attributed with having collaborated with the former head of the UDEF in Madrid, Óscar S.G., in the use of other companies and VTC licenses to launder money.

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