Drugs in a stevedore's car, microphones in a police station, and a crime: the port's corruption scheme

Barcelona"The freedom of everyone who has any dealings with these people is possibly in danger." This article appeared years ago in The Toads of the PortFirst, it was a website and then a blog in which an anonymous person reported that some dockworkers at the port of Barcelona were, at the same time, informers and drug traffickers who were tipping off the police about a drug shipment that was about to arrive so they could arrest him and a rival drug trafficker, so they could continue with the shipment. One of the most repeated names on this blog is David Caballero, known as Bubito. It was rumored that he was one of the leaders of the white powder scandal at the port, but on this page they directly accused him of being one and collaborating with the police.

Decades have passed since this publication, the consequences of which are now more present than ever. Bubito –shot dead in Montgat in November last year– and the rest of the names that appear as toads They always claimed that Carlos L., a stevedore at the port, was behind the website. After a while, on June 15, 2016, he was arrested as he was leaving a gym in the upper part of Barcelona. In the trunk of his car, they found two bags containing more than 772 grams of cocaine, 96 grams of hashish, a semi-automatic pistol, an axe, and a knife.

For three years, Carlos L. had to defend himself against the accusations, until in 2019 the case took a radical turn: what was an accusation against a stevedore turned into a plot involving two Mossos d'Esquadra officers—a corporal and an agent—and two mechanics, each with the figure of... This Monday, the trial begins in the Barcelona Court for placing the drugs in Carlos L.'s car and attempting to implicate him in a drug trafficking case. Sentences exceeding fifteen years in prison are being requested for the four suspects.

It was not, however, the first attempt to accuse the stevedore of a crime. In 2015, Carlos L. was reported for threatening a colleague who was also said to be part of the toads. Ultimately, he was acquitted. However, during the trial at the City of Justice, there was a scuffle between the defendant and Bubito. They even came to blows, which led to a return trial. In that second proceeding, while testifying, Carlos L. denounced the alleged irregular activities of the group of stevedores led by Bubito.. And he went further: he said they formed a "criminal organization." Since then, the worker's entourage has claimed that Bubito intended to "get rid of him by any means" and that he set the trap.

A long-standing relationship

The fact that the drugs found in Carlos L.'s car were a setup is a fact thoroughly investigated by the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) and acknowledged by the Prosecutor's Office in its indictment. According to the prosecution, the two mechanics—who planted the drugs in the car—and the Mossos d'Esquadra officers, both stationed at the Sant Martí police station, were involved in the setup. According to the same indictment, the officers searched their police database for personal information about Carlos L., such as his vehicle's registration number, and provided it to the two mechanics, one of whom was a former Desokupa employee.

The four suspects knew each other from a gym, but one of the two Mossos d'Esquadra officers (the one who does not hold the rank of corporal) had also worked for the port police and knew many dockworkers. Afterward, they began monitoring Carlos L.'s routines and decided that while he was at the gym, next to Francesc Macià Square in Barcelona, ​​it was a good time to plant the drugs and the weapon. Their mechanical knowledge allowed them to plant the item without forcing any doors.

The prosecution continues its brief by stating that the next step in the scheme—which was key to implicating the officers—was a call to the Sant Martí police station with the aim of exposing Carlos L. A certain "Alberto" (whom they identify as one of the mechanics) asked to speak with a certain Trini. This second is the nickname of an officer at the station, known for having informants in the drug world. Alberto reported that there was a car, a Volkswagen Golf, with drugs and weapons inside in Francesc Macià's area. This tip-off made Trini suspicious—his informants didn't usually call him by that name.

Furthermore, the events had occurred on the other side of the city, but the call was made to the headquarters where the two officers under investigation worked. At the time, the corporal was on duty and handled the incident: a patrol car from the Les Corts police station (the closest to the gym) arrived, but he also approached another vehicle from Sant Martí. There they found the drugs and the weapon and arrested Carlos L. It was an express arrest: they didn't even look at the cameras or require any other type of evidence. Now, both Mossos d'Esquadra face up to eighteen years in prison, and the mechanics, sixteen, according to the Prosecutor's Office's request. They are charged with crimes against public health, illegal possession of weapons, unlawful detention, and, in the case of the officers, disclosure of secrets.

Defense argument

Arriving at these accusations required a lengthy investigation by the Mossos d'Esquadra's Internal Affairs officers, in which wiretaps were key. Investigators placed microphones in the office of the corporal at the Sant Martí police station. They even placed a geolocator in the police car they were using, as ARA has been able to confirm. And, to unnerve them, they left a report with photographs of both mechanics on their desk: they were trying to get them to talk about the case. According to sources close to the case, the wiretaps even led investigators to suspect that the contact between the Mossos d'Esquadra and the mechanics was not exclusively about the Carlos L. case, but that it was even understood that they were discussing selling police geolocators.

However, the defense of the Mossos d'Esquadra under investigation criticizes the wiretaps as not being sufficiently substantiated for the investigating judge to approve them. They believe that before tapping all those devices, the police had little evidence against their clients and, therefore, will request the annulment of the proceedings. Another element they criticize is that the investigation was prospective, since although Bubito's figure has been looming over the entire investigation, she has never been formally investigated for these events.

It should be noted that this Dockworker was murdered last year after dropping off his young son at school. A man shot him in the back while he was having breakfast at a bar and is still It is being investigated whether it was revenge ordered by another drug trafficker from the port.The defendants' defense team concludes that the police investigation focused on the officers and did not delve into the internal dynamics of the port that led to the attempt to imprison Carlos L.

The web as a source

To try to find the trigger of the conflict we must go back again to The Port Toads. In addition to describing the danger of certain people linked to drug trafficking in the port, the website even pointed out that the toads They stopped a "trap" for the all-powerful businessman José Mestre, who was arrested in 2010 for collaborating with a Colombian gang that brought 187 kilograms of cocaine into the port. Although the police located the website address in a Bogotá prison, the suspicions of the toads They turned to Carlos L.

Some sources consulted by this newspaper also suggest that, at one point, Carlos L. refused to enter the cocaine business. "And saying no is sometimes more dangerous than saying yes," notes a source familiar with the operations at the port of Barcelona. Since then, Carlos L. has not been the same. He always feels watched, suspicious of everyone, even those closest to him, and feels anxious and alone. He has undergone psychiatric and neuropsychological treatment, diagnosing him with recurrent depression and an anxiety disorder. His lawyer, Eulàlia Puig of the Fils law firm, adds that, apart from the planting of the drugs and the gun and the threats, they also tried to implicate him in a child pornography case without success.

The case will be tried in these weeks in sessions that will address not only an attempt to frame a stevedore, but also the drug business in the port of Barcelona and the alleged corrupt role of some police officers.