The National Police had been looking for two suspected drug traffickers since June 2023 because they were involved in a 4,316-kilo cocaine shipment that was seized in Alicante, the largest ever seized in the province. This week, one of them turned himself in at the Provincial Police Station and was released on bail of 20,000 euros this Friday, December 19th, after appearing before a judge.
The man who was arrested was 43 years old and Albanian, like most of the people involved in the drug shipment. He went to court with lawyer Francisco Miguel Galiana Botella. The Prosecutor’s Office asked for him to be held without bail, but the judge set bail at 20,000 euros for his temporary release.
Cocaine hidden in bananas
The National Police and Customs Surveillance recovered 4,316 kilos of cocaine during the San Juan Bonfires celebrations in Alicante in June 2023. The drugs were hidden in a cargo of bananas from Ecuador that came to a warehouse in the Llano del Espartal industrial park. At first, five people were arrested, but detectives had already found two more people who could not be caught. One of them turned himself in to the police this week.
The five people who were arrested in 2023, two of whom were defended by lawyers Francisco Miguel Galiana Botella and Alicia Grau Córdoba, were first put in jail. However, the Provincial Court later released them after agreeing with the defence’s appeal that they had not been told at the hearing of the important evidence against the investigated parties because the case was declared secret.
In the middle of 2024, the Court of Instruction Number 1 of Alicante, the same court that is in charge this Friday, charged these five people with sending drugs linked to an Albanian drug trafficking network. The court also ordered the search and arrest of two people, one of whom was arrested this week after turning himself in. One of the five defendants has died, while another, who was let go from jail, is now on the run.
Author: Derek Appleton
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