The Sixth Section of the Provincial Court will judge on May 5 and 6, six defendants accused of introducing more than 400 kilos of cocaine in Lanzarote through a boat that arrived in La Santa in 2017, for whom the Prosecutor's Office requests sentences of between 14 and a half years and 17 years and nine months in prison.
The trial will be held as it is a case with prisoners, which is one of the exceptions allowed during the state of alarm. And it is that, except for urgent actions, judicial acts continue to be paralyzed on the island. The defendants, four of whom are in provisional detention in the Tahíche prison, will be questioned by videoconference, as will the different witnesses.
For its part, the court will be in the courtroom of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, while the prosecutor and the lawyers of the parties will be at the headquarters of the Courts of Arrecife.
The cocaine was brought from America with a sailboat
According to the indictment, due to investigations carried out between February 2017 and August of the same year by the Team against Organized Crime and the Team against Organized Crime and Anti-Drug Trafficking of Tenerife, the existence of a group of people dedicated to the introduction and subsequent distribution in Lanzarote of cocaine "with total disregard for the health of others" was known.
The Public Prosecutor's Office maintains that "the defendants, in agreement with each other and with other people whose identity could not be determined, planned the maritime transport of cocaine from Insular America or South America, possibly Antigua and Barbuda, to the Island of Lanzarote through the use of a boat arranged for this purpose."
At the head of this structure, directing and giving orders, was R.H.N according to the Prosecutor's Office, who "from Lanzarote was in charge of planning operations to acquire the narcotic substance, as well as organizing its transport and final distribution on the island."
To this end, he states that he had "the outstanding assistance and direct collaboration of the defendants D.A.A.A., C.B.M., J.M.L.M., and S.A.A.H., who, following the guidelines of R.H.N., together with him, from February 2017 to April 13, 2017, carried out work to prepare a boat for a long journey, such as assembling technical equipment, supplying fuel and travel bags, in addition to the corresponding payment of moorings."
The boat, which was a 12-meter-long sailboat, arrived captained on March 7, 2017 "at the Marina Rubicón port", from which it departed on April 13 "with only two crew members, D.A.A.A and S.A.A.H" to America. There, "the cocaine was introduced into it and returned to Lanzarote on August 5, 2017."
Surprised by the Civil Guard when they were disembarking the drugs
During August 5, R.H.N. went out with a semi-rigid boat "of his property" to meet the sailboat "at a point near the coast of Lanzarote, probably about 140 kilometers from the island of Allegranza". According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, R.H.N. extracted "20 sports bags" containing the cocaine that, at around 03:30 hours on August 6, tried to introduce towing the boat with a vehicle on the coast of La Santa.
In the towing and disembarkation operation "were R.H.N., S.A.A.H. and O.R.O.", who "were surprised by agents of the Civil Guard". In the boat, "the 20 sports bags containing 402.17 kilograms of cocaine with an average richness of 76.55%" were found, whose value in the market is estimated at 15.7 million.
For the transfer of the drug, in addition to the vehicle used to tow the boat and that "had been acquired by R.H.N." on August 1, the group had two other vehicles that were rented, one that was found "parked in the vicinity of La Santa" and a third "in the municipality of Tinajo."
As for the sailboat, after the exchange of the drug, "arrived at the Marina Rubicón port of Playa Blanca on August 6, crewed by D.A.A., and a third whose identity could not be determined". In it, a passport, an ID and a driver's license from the Republic of Peru were found, all three with a photograph of S.A.A.H, which had "been altered by the accused". In fact, another name appeared on them. In the passport, according to the indictment of the Prosecutor's Office, there was an entry stamp in Antigua and Barbuda on August 10, 2017.
Request for penalties
For all this, the Public Prosecutor's Office considers that the six defendants are the perpetrators of a crime against public health, in the form of a substance that causes serious damage to health, in a quantity of notorious importance and extreme gravity by boat, as well as a crime of membership of a criminal group. In addition, in the case of S.A.A.H. he is also accused of a continued crime of falsification of an official document.
For this one, the Prosecutor's Office requests the highest prison sentence, specifically a total of 17 years and nine months in prison. For R.H.N., he asks for a sentence of 15 years and three months in prison, while for D.A.A.A he asks for a sentence of 14 years and nine months in prison and for the other three defendants of 14 years and six months. Likewise, for all of them a fine of 78,722,766.65 euros is requested.
The six defendants were arrested between August 6 and 9, 2017 and four of them, R.H.N., S.A.A.H., O.R.O and D.A.A. were imprisoned provisionally.
