Crime without a body: the jury finds the drug trafficker guilty of killing his partner

BarcelonaA jury has unanimously found the defendant guilty of killing a man to whom he owed money related to drug trafficking. The crime occurred in Sant Andreu de la Barca (Baix Llobregat) in May 2020, and the victim's body has not been found. Following the jury's verdict, the Barcelona Provincial Court ordered the defendant, Lluís B., to remain in pretrial detention, while the prosecution maintained its request for a 15-year prison sentence for homicide. The events that the jury unanimously found proven took place on May 11, 2020, during the height of the coronavirus pandemic lockdown. That day, the victim, Diego Vargas, called the accused in a fit of anger and demanded a meeting to collect payment of a debt related to marijuana trafficking, a matter of contention they had been having since 2019. Vargas, as usual, called the accused to ask him to open the door. This was the last activity recorded on Vargas's phone; although he continued to receive messages, he did not reply to any of them. As AHORA explained, the lack of the body —and, therefore, of all the evidence that could be derived from the victim— meant that the prosecution and the plaintiff had to work hard during the trial to highlight all the indications that pointed to the accused and try to prove the sequence of events.

Finally, the jury unanimously declared it proven, as the prosecution maintained, that inside the warehouse the accused "intentionally" killed the victim, in a way that could not be determined, and whose body has not yet been located.

"Motives for getting rid of them"

In its verdict, the jury considered as key evidence of the defendant's guilt that he was the last person to have contact with the victim, in the meeting the victim had requested to demand payment of the debt. They also gave credence to the evidence that the victim intended to participate in larger drug trafficking operations with the defendant, although neither the defendant nor the organization wanted him to, leading them to conclude that he had "reasons to get rid of them." The jury also considered the testimony of one witness who claimed to have heard the victim tell the defendant, "If I go down, you go down with me," as he was aware of the defendant's dealings with a large-scale drug trafficking organization. Other witnesses also testified that the defendant possessed firearms in the warehouse and boasted about it with phrases like, "I kill someone and I don't even get a grip." redAccording to the jury, the trial also established that, although the victim considered the accused "like a father," once the family reported her disappearance, he did not actively participate in the search and displayed coldness and a lack of empathy. Furthermore, the jury rejected Lluís B.'s claim that he refused a pardon. In light of this unanimous verdict, prosecutor Teresa Yoldi agreed to maintain her initial request for a fifteen-year prison sentence for homicide and that the accused compensate the victim's children with 250,000 euros. The accused argued for a reduced sentence, claiming that the victim had approached him to participate in drug trafficking.