The defendant accused of trying to introduce almost a kilo of cocaine in Lanzarote last February 2 will finally be sentenced to three years in prison, after ratifying an agreement with the Public Prosecutor's Office.
The trial was to be held this Tuesday before the First Section of the Provincial Court, with an initial request of six years in prison, but finally the hearing has not been held.
The defendant has come to the room guarded by an agent of the Civil Guard and another of the National Police, since he is in provisional prison since he was arrested eight months ago at the Lanzarote airport, with 99 capsules of cocaine inside his body.
"If there are no security reasons to prevent it, they can remove the handcuffs," the president of the Chamber told the agents, before starting the hearing.
Afterwards, the Prosecutor's Office has exposed the change in the request for penalties, under the agreement reached, and the defendant has limited himself to ratifying it. For this, the presence of an interpreter was necessary, who was in charge of translating the interventions of the Prosecutor's Office and the magistrate into Portuguese.
A fine that he will not be able to pay
In addition to three years in prison, the defendant has also accepted a fine of 91,742 euros, with 3 more months in prison in case of non-payment. "He says he has no money," the interpreter translated, when from the Chamber they indicated that since it was a settlement agreement, he had to hand over the money at that time.
Thus, in addition to the 3 years to which he has been sentenced, he must serve another three months for the unpaid fine.
From that time will be deducted the months that he has already been in provisional prison, since he was arrested at the Lanzarote airport, when he arrived on the island on a flight from Madrid.
After arousing the suspicions of the agents, he was referred to the hospital for an analysis, which determined that he was carrying 99 capsules inside his body, of a substance that turned out to be cocaine and that yielded a weight of 971.39 grams. According to the Prosecutor's Office, "it would have reached a value of 91,742 euros in the illicit market", which is the sum that is claimed in respect of a fine.
