El Chato de Aspe and thirteen others accused of drug trafficking are on trial

The owner of the cockpit, convicted of threatening the mayor of Aspense, faces eight and a half years in prison for distributing cocaine to traffickers in Albacete.

ALEX DOMÍNGUEZ

The Provincial Court of Albacete has begun this Monday a trial of the owner of the El Chato de Aspe cockpit, Ángel Alberola, and thirteen others accused of engaging in drug trafficking, especially cocaine. The Prosecutor’s Office initially requests sentences of between four years and six months in prison and eight and a half years in prison for drug trafficking and criminal organization for three of the 14 defendants, including El Chato, a cousin of his and another defendant.

The trial is scheduled to be held over several days and the first session has been mainly dedicated to the preliminary questions raised by the lawyers of the fourteen defendants, among whom were the lawyers of Alicante José Soler Martín, Francisco Miguel Galiana Botella, Alicia Grau Córdoba, Iván Rodríguez Lorente, Alejandro Rodríguez Vidal, José Manuel Yepes and Joaquín de Lacy.

El Chato’s lawyer has raised as a preliminary issue the nullity of the search carried out by the National Police in a house in Alcoy, where they seized more than 5.5 kilos of cocaine and 10.9 kilos of amphetamine. This drug was allegedly from El Chato, according to a defendant at the time. The defense of the owner of the cockpit has argued at the oral hearing that his client was not present at said search and therefore it is necessary to agree to the nullity.

INFORMACIÓN

Several defendants, for whom the lowest sentences are requested, partially recognize the facts, while El Chato and the rest of the defendants will testify on the last day of the oral hearing, which will resume this Tuesday with several police testimonies, including that of an inspector from the UDYCO of Alicante who led the investigation that culminated in the arrest of the owner of the cockpit.

In pretrial detention

Ángel Alberola, who has been in pre-trial detention since October 2024, was already sentenced last year to a fine of 270 euros for a minor crime of threatening the mayor of Aspe, Antonio Puerto, to whom he told that he was going to rip off his head after a meeting held last year at the City Hall with the aim of reopening the establishment,  closed by the consistory for the celebration of illegal cockfights.

The drug trafficking network that is being prosecuted has ramifications in Albacete, Alicante and Badajoz and at the time the Police reported the arrest of 26 people from two different organizations, from whom they seized 19 kilos of drugs and more than 300,000 euros in cash.

According to the accusation of the Prosecutor’s Office, El Chato, his cousin and a third defendant were regularly engaged in the supply of narcotic substances to traffickers based in the neighborhood of the Seiscientas Viviendas in Albacete. During the investigation by the National Police of Alicante and Albacete, on October 6, 2024, a surveillance device was established on the suspicion that two vehicles from the A-31 were heading to the city with a significant amount of cocaine. In an Audi Q-7, which performed “shuttle” functions to alert of controls, El Chato and his cousin were traveling, while a third investigated was transporting half a kilo of cocaine in a Volkswagen Touran.

Based on that intervention, the court authorized several searches in homes related to the main investigated. In a house on San Nicolás de Alcoy Street, the police found more than 5.5 kilos of cocaine and 10.9 kilos of amphetamine, as well as precision scales and a vacuum packaging machine. In another search, in a house in Aspe, 24,750 euros were seized, while in the search of the cockpit no drugs were located. The Prosecutor’s Office estimates the value of the cocaine seized from this first group at about 204,357 euros and that of the amphetamine at about 570,393 euros.

Money seized

Among the most relevant amounts of money seized are 209,195 euros located in a house in Fregenal de la Sierra, 30,000 euros in the home of one of the defendants in Albacete, 26,670 euros in another search in the capital and 20,770 euros in a house in Pozohondo. The Prosecutor’s Office attributes these amounts to alleged illicit cocaine trafficking.

In addition to the sentences of seven and a half years for drug trafficking and one year for belonging to a criminal group that are initially requested for El Chato, his cousin and the arrested with half a kilo of cocaine, the Prosecutor’s Office is asking these three defendants for a fine of 2.8 million euros.

For seven other defendants, whom the Prosecutor’s Office places in the group in charge of the reception and distribution of the drug in Albacete, the Prosecutor’s Office claims 4 years and 6 months in prison for drug trafficking, a fine of 8,000 euros and another year in prison for belonging to a criminal group. The Public Prosecutor’s Office also includes individualized accusations against four other investigated, for whom it requests sentences of 4 years and 6 months in prison for drug trafficking, with fines ranging from 10,000 to 80,000 euros, depending on the substances and quantities seized in each case.

The Prosecutor’s Office is also interested in the seizure of all the narcotic substances seized, their definitive destruction, the seizure of scales, packaging machines, seized money and the Volkswagen Touran and Audi Q-7 vehicles allegedly used in the operation.

See original article