v. pita VIGO / THE VOICE

XOÁN CARLOS GIL

The Court recognizes that the person involved was in a house several kilometers away from the controlled delivery

08 Feb 2025 . Updated at 05:00 h.

The Court in Vigo has released Vlamarjo N., one of the four Albanians who requested to be released from pre-trial detention, after being arrested on January 8 for a cache of 1,274 kilos of cocaine that arrived in Vigo in a container aboard the Cape Citius container ship  from Ecuador. He is free because, unlike the others, he was arrested on Rúa da Pardiña, in Coia, several kilometers from the Camiño da Xesteira, where the police made the controlled delivery of 23 bales to a house in Bembrive.

The Fifth Section of the Pontevedra Court, in Vigo, held four appeal hearings by videoconference on Wednesday. Given that Vlamarjo N. was waiting in a house and not in the presence of the cache when it was unloaded by undercover police, his case raised doubts for the court, which issued an order annulling the provisional detention order. There is no evidence that he had access to the police proceedings, while the others were informed that they had been subjected to surveillance and monitoring.

Vlamarjo N. told the instructor that he had been in Spain for 24 hours, that some uniformed men went to the house and that he was “traumatized”. He insisted that he had nothing to do with it. The Albanian was released from prison on Thursday but the Court took away his passport, prohibited him from leaving the country and forces him to appear every week before the judge.

The defense was exercised by Francisco Miguel Galiana Botella and Alicia Grau Córdoba, with an office in Alicante. They insisted that the rights of the four Albanians had been violated because the Court of Instruction number 4 of Vigo had not given them access to the police action to specify what specific evidence incriminated him. The Court chose to stick to the facts and released one of the four applicants because he was the only one who was not caught next to the cache.