The Sixth Section of the Provincial Court of Las Palmas will try next Thursday, June 19, three defendants accused of introducing cocaine into Lanzarote, using the ferries that arrive to the island from other points of the archipelago or from the Andalusian cities of Huelva and Cádiz.
The Provincial Court scheduled the holding of this trial in March 2024, although it was finally not held then. After a second hearing for the month of November last year, the trial was suspended because one of the defendants attended without legal assistance.
According to the indictment of the Prosecutor's Office, between 2016 and 2021 two of the defendants J.M.T.F. and F.F.J. allegedly agreed to introduce "large quantities of cocaine" into Lanzarote to distribute it illegally on the island. This activity did not stop until they were arrested thanks to the operations carried out between 2019 and 2021 by the Organized Crime Team of the Civil Guard in the Canary Islands, in coordination with the Benemérita in Huelva and Madrid.
For this, the Public Ministry accuses them of hiding the substance inside vehicles transported inside the high-speed boats that connect the islands with each other and also with cities in the southern peninsula.
For this, the Prosecutor's Office accuses I.K.V.B., the third defendant, of being an accomplice of the other two, and of assuming the "role of final seller of the product" on the island. In the framework of this operation, her home, located on Triana Street in Arrecife, was searched.
In that search they found a backpack with at least ten wraps of cocaine and another ten wraps with non-fiscalized white powder substances, which in the illicit market would be worth approximately 25,111 euros. In addition, they seized a hydraulic press and 7,000 euros in cash. In addition, they located a semi-automatic pistol from the Air Force, with 17 unfired cartridges, without it being recorded that the accused had a weapons permit.
The Public Ministry classifies these crimes as a crime against public health and another of illegal possession of weapons. Therefore, it asks for six years in prison for the three defendants, with special disqualification during the time of the sentence and a fine of 75,334 euros. Meanwhile, it adds to I.K.V.B. one year and nine months in prison for possession of weapons.
Finally, the Prosecutor's Office requests the provisional dismissal of another six of the accused because "sufficient reasons have not emerged to support the accusation."
