The court rejects the wiretaps and acquits two police officers accused of planting drugs on a dockworker

BarcelonaThe Barcelona Provincial Court has acquitted the two Mossos d'Esquadra officers accused of collaborating with a drug trafficking ring to plant drugs and weapons in the car of Carlos L., a dockworker at the Port of Barcelona. The prosecution had sought 18 years and 9 months in prison for the two officers, but the court dismissed the charges against them for the drugs and also annulled the wiretaps that the Mossos d'Esquadra themselves had conducted on the two officers. The judges considered that there was insufficient evidence to justify such measures and that the suspicions regarding their involvement in the ring were based on weak circumstantial evidence. The Fifth Section of the Barcelona Provincial Court, as reported by EFE, also acquitted the other two defendants in the trial held in November: a former Desokupa employee and martial arts instructor, and his nephew. According to the prosecution's theory, both officers were the ones who planted the drugs and weapons in the dockworker's vehicle in June 2016. However, the two officers provided information about Carlos L. after consulting the Mossos d'Esquadra database. The officers, a corporal with over three decades of experience and a former port police officer, had been suspended without pay for four years but were now back on active duty.

The mastermind of the plot

According to the document, both officers, who faced four charges – drug trafficking, illegal possession of weapons, unlawful detention, and disclosure of secrets – bear "no responsibility" in the plot orchestrated against Carlos L., who during the trial He explained that behind this maneuver was David Caballero, the dockworker known as Bubito, who was murdered in November 2014 in Montgat, in the Maresme region, in a drug-related revenge killing. Carlos L. argued that Bubito, a "drug lord" who controlled the port, devised the plan against him because he had previously refused to work for him. The prosecutor maintained at the trial that, in accordance with a "preconceived plan," the two Mossos d'Esquadra officers, who were then assigned to the Sant Martí police station in Barcelona, ​​provided "essential" information that they obtained on the afternoon of March 18, 2016, by consulting databases. Based on this information, according to the prosecution, the other two defendants surveilled Carlos L. to learn his routines, until June 15, 2016, when they carried out the operation to plant the drugs and weapons, taking advantage of the fact that he had parked his car in front of a gym in Barcelona. During the trial, both officers denied the prosecution's account and insisted that they did not participate "in any way" in this operation.