The Provincial Court of Las Palmas has sentenced two skippers of a boat that was intercepted two miles from Famara in September 2018 to two and a half years in prison. The defendants admitted the facts during the trial, which was held this Thursday in Gran Canaria, and reached an agreement with the Prosecutor's Office.
Thus, what is stated in the indictment is considered proven, which is that J. I. and A. A., 49 and 23 years old, put themselves "in common agreement" with "other unidentified people and, motivated by profit, charged various amounts of money to 29 immigrants, some of them minors, to take them with them to the Canary coasts, knowing that they were violating the rules on entry into the national territory and that once they arrived they would be in an irregular situation in Spain."
The boat left the coast of Agadir (Morocco), being intercepted by the Maritime Rescue patrol boat two miles from Famara beach at about 11 a.m. on September 15, 2018, "with all the immigrants inside."
According to what they acknowledged, the defendants were in charge of the aforementioned boat from its departure in Agadir until its arrival in Lanzarote, "helping each other with a GPS device." This boat "lacked any security system, as well as life jackets, thereby endangering the lives of the immigrants." The defendants, moreover, "were just more immigrants who wanted to reach Spanish territory, in order to have a better life."
