A call from Rubén Viñuales to a drug dealer when he was a lawyer sparks controversy: the Mossos believe he wanted to buy drugs

TarragonaOn June 23, 2017, twenty minutes past 12 noon, Rubén Viñuales, then a lawyer and councilor for Ciutadans at Tarragona City Council, had a phone call that this Friday has sparked controversy in the city. The portal Portaenrere.cat has transcribed the call, which is included in the summary of a drug trafficking case currently being tried at the Tarragona Provincial Court, and has collected the testimony of the Mossos sergeant who led the investigation. On Wednesday, as judicial sources confirmed to ARA, the officer explained to the court that from the conversation between Viñuales and the drug dealer, it could be interpreted that the now socialist mayor of Tarragona intended to buy drugs. The mayor has reacted through a statement on Instagram, "categorically" denying this interpretation and justifying that the call was made because he was acting as the lawyer for his interlocutor.

In the transcript of the call, collected by Portaenrere.cat, the Mossos explain that Viñuales tells his interlocutor that he is calling "for recreational and festive matters, that he has to go to a wedding and that he has to catch a plane immediately." "From the analysis of the call, it is inferred that the telephone user is requesting a narcotic substance from the accused because he has to go to a wedding and has to catch a plane, but the accused, in line with other previous calls and following the arrest of V.D., refuses to talk about issues related to drug trafficking over the phone," it is described in the summary. V.D. is the nickname of another person arrested for drug trafficking a few months earlier. Precisely, his arrest is pointed to as key to reaching the arrest of the main accused in the trial being held in Tarragona. The Mossos who testified on Wednesday highlighted that it was common for "euphemisms" to be found in the conversations to refer to drugs to avoid being caught.

The mayor of Tarragona has announced that he will initiate legal action against the author of the report, the journalist Rafa Marrasé. Viñuales is not under investigation in the trial, and his name appears, in fact, collaterally in the transcripts of the case's calls that the Mossos considered "relevant" at the time.

"The events date back to 2017, and the reproduced conversation took place within the framework of the professional relationship I maintained as a lawyer with this person, for whom I had assumed the defense and various legal matters," says Viñuales, adding that "linking this conversation to an alleged request for narcotic substances responds exclusively to an interpretation made at that time by the investigating agents, which I do not share at all." In fact, Viñuales recalls that the investigating judge did not share that interpretation and, therefore, he was not investigated "nor summoned to testify, not even as a witness."

The news broke while the plenary session of the Tarragona Provincial Council was underway, where Viñuales serves as vice president. Furthermore, this Friday, the Innova case, involving alleged corruption, also began to be tried at the Tarragona Court, in which the city's former mayor, Josep Félix Ballesteros, is accused. And all of this comes in the middle of the Santa Tecla festival.