The Sixth Section of the Provincial Court will try on May 23 a defendant accused of a drug trafficking crime who had been wanted since at least 2013. Back then, two other defendants in the same case were already tried and convicted in the first instance, but R.I.H.J. could not be tried because his whereabouts were unknown. Now, next Thursday, the date has been set to hold the trial against him, for whom the Prosecutor's Office is requesting a sentence of four years and six months in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros.
According to the indictment, the events took place on January 23, 2010, when the other two defendants, J.S.F. and M.J.N.R., who were already convicted in the first instance, "under instructions" from the one who will now be tried, collected "a package weighing 1,445 grams at the Post Office" in Arrecife containing clothes that "were impregnated with 491 grams of cocaine" and that was addressed to a fourth person "whose whereabouts are unknown".
This cocaine, which the Prosecutor's Office considers was going to be "used for sale among third parties", had an average purity of 60.02% and would have reached a value of 36,924.564 euros on the illicit market.
In addition, after the judicial opening of the package, which was judicially seized, as well as its transit and delivery, the first two defendants gave "their voluntary consent for the entry and search of their homes", finding different amounts of hashish in both. Specifically, according to the indictment, two pieces of 3.27 and 29.74 grams were found in one of the homes, and a piece of 38.10 grams in the other. All of this, according to the Public Prosecutor's Office, would have reached a value of 332,794 euros on the illicit market.
Sentence of three and a half years for the other two defendants
In the trial already held against J.S.F. and M.J.N.R, both denied the facts, claiming to be unaware that the package they had gone to pick up contained cocaine. However, the Sixth Section of the Provincial Court considered that the statements of the Civil Guard officers who testified at the oral hearing were "forceful" and "coherent". And it is that, among other things, according to their testimonies collected in the sentence, one of the defendants tried to escape when he saw that his partner was going to be arrested.
Thus, the Sixth Section of the Provincial Court considered them guilty of a crime against public health. However, it understood that the mitigating circumstance of undue delays concurred due to the time elapsed since the procedure began and the ruling was issued and, therefore, only sentenced them to three years and six months in prison and not four and a half years as requested by the Prosecutor's Office, which are the same that are now also requested for R.I.H. Likewise, they were sentenced to pay a fine of 75,000 euros with subsidiary personal liability of one day of deprivation of liberty for every 250 euros unpaid, a sentence that is also now requested for the third defendant, who will be tried in Gran Canaria.
