"I've stopped sleeping": the testimony of a man kidnapped in Llinars del Vallès

Barcelona"They started treating me well when my family told them I would get the money." A kidnapping victim recounted in court this Monday the two days he spent kidnapped between July 9 and 11, 2022. During that time, he was beaten, electrocuted in the nipples, and his skin was pierced with a drill bit. Eleven of the twelve defendants confessed to participating in the kidnapping or being accomplices, and at the start of the trial, they accepted a plea deal with the prosecution that gives them sentences that vary depending on their involvement, but in no case exceed six years. Before the agreement, the highest sentences the prosecutor requested were over 30 years.

The twelfth defendant maintains that he had nothing to do with it despite the fact that the victim was held in a house that belongs to him. He has rejected a plea deal with the prosecution, arguing that he has been living elsewhere for years.The Prosecutor's Office maintains that more people were involved, but the court has been unable to locate them before the trial, which began on Monday under heavy security. Five of the twelve defendants are in pretrial detention, and the trial will continue this Thursday.

The motive for the kidnapping was reportedly revenge for the theft of a shipment of smuggled tobacco. In fact, the lure that caught the victim was an alleged tobacco deal. He was summoned to Llinars del Vallès (Vallès Oriental) at 7:30 p.m. "Two cars blocked my path, they put me inside one, and kidnapped me," the victim explained to the magistrates of the Seventh Section of the Barcelona Court of Appeals, who, given the magnitude of the case and the number of defendants, were sent to a courtroom in the City of Justice.

The kidnappers arrived in two Seat Leóns and, at gunpoint, forced him into one of the cars. They took him to a house in San Cebrià de Vallalta (Maresme), where he suffered the most serious assaults. "They abused me and called my family demanding 200,000 euros, saying I had stolen their tobacco," the victim explained from a booth adjacent to the courtroom to avoid the defendants seeing him. "I've stopped sleeping; I can't sleep peacefully," the man added.

Many of the defendants have criminal records, mainly for theft, and in fact, one of them was involved in the kidnapping while on prison leave: he took the victim's iPhone, watch, credit card, car keys, and 120 euros at the headquarters before the night before the prison in July, while the victim was still being held. When they were arrested and police searched their homes, they found weapons such as a stun gun, large knives, pistols, a dagger, and a revolver in the homes of some of the defendants.

Two days of attacks

The assaults that the victim described as mistreatment are detailed in the prosecution's indictment, which all but one of the defendants have admitted as true: the defendants continuously beat him, causing injuries to his body, and bashed his skull with a pistol butt—which has not been clarified. All this while his hands and feet were tied.

They also took the BMW the victim was driving when he showed up at the house in Sant Cebrià de Vallalta for the alleged tobacco deal. He had rented it for the holidays, as he explained at trial. The kidnappers realized it might be carrying a geolocation device and decided to get rid of it. They also took the victim to another address. He was in Sant Adrià de Besòs (Barcelonès), but he could no longer identify where they were taking him because his eyes had been covered. There they tied him to a chair again, and later threw him to the ground while the attacks continued: "They struck him on the back, applied electric shocks to his nipples, tried to cut off a phalanx, and hit his skin with a drill bit," the prosecutor's statement describes. During the kidnapping, they also showed him an AK-47 rifle and threatened to shoot him in the head and legs.

"They thought I had stolen their tobacco and they hit me to get me to tell them where it was. I told them the location, but no... I guess they didn't trust me," the victim stated. The man added that they continued abusing him until, in one of the calls they made to his father and mother, they obtained their commitment that they would get a portion of the money they demanded. In these calls, they had warned them that they would harm their son, and in some cases, they made gunshots to frighten them.

Eventually, the kidnappers agreed to meet with the victim's family to release him. They met between Cardedeu and Llinars del Vallès after midnight on July 11, and one of the accused opened fire from inside the car at the vehicles containing the victim's father, uncle, cousins, and a friend. After unsuccessfully trying to collect the ransom they were demanding, they released the victim in Sabadell (Vallès Occidental) around 4 a.m., threatening to shoot him in the legs.

About two months later, five of the accused showed up at the victim's home and fired thirteen bullets at the facade and at his father's car, which was parked outside. Aside from the agreement with the Prosecutor's Office, the defendants have always been charged with a lesser form of kidnapping, which the Penal Code provides for cases in which the victim is released within 72 hours without the kidnappers achieving their goal.