"You can't stay away from the drug lords": Bubito's figure looms over the trial of two Mossos d'Esquadra.

Barcelona"It's hard to stay away from drug lords; they still have a lot of influence. Some people join out of fear. They're untouchable. They wanted me to work for them, and I refused." Port of Barcelona stevedore Carlos L. testified Tuesday in court that he lives as a victim: four men, two of them Mossos d'Esquadra officers, They sit in the dock for having put drugs and weapons in their car. in 2016 and trying to implicate him in a crime. The events are being tried in a small courtroom at the Barcelona Court, and Carlos L. spoke less than a meter from the four defendants. "No, I didn't know them," he stated as he reviewed the four men one by one. One of them also responded by shaking his head.

The stevedore maintains that these four men were the executors of a plan to falsely accuse him, but that they weren't the ones who came up with the idea. Carlos L. asserted that David Caballero, the stevedore known as Bubito, was one of the "masterminds" due to the conflicts he had had and also for having refused to work for him, for a "drug lord." The victim has reported that Bubito, murdered almost a year ago in Montgat in a drug-related revenge, was an "untouchable informant" for the police. At first, years ago, they knew each other from working at the Port and had a "cordial" relationship. "He had impunity, he committed crimes without fear, he was involved in cocaine trafficking," said Carlos L.

The enmity began because, according to the stevedore, Bubito falsely accused a friend of his of being a drug dealer, and ended up in prison. Later, he was accused of being the creator of a website, The Port Toads, which revealed who the "drug lords of the port" were, including Bubito and Albert G., another stevedore who also appeared at various points in the story. Bubito's shadow loomed over the trial, but at no point was he listed as a suspect. In fact, the judge who investigated the case did not allow the police to focus on David Caballero and instead focused the investigation on the events and four defendants.

All of this, according to Carlos L., led to the attempt to implicate him in a drug case. The presiding judge was categorical and insistent that the only person on trial was who put the drugs and weapons in the car, repeatedly interrupting the interrogations of the victim's and defense lawyers. That day, Carlos L. was leaving a gym near Plaça Francesc Macià in Barcelona when Mossos d'Esquadra police stopped him and asked him to open the trunk. "They knew where the drugs were, they practically didn't look," he said. One of those officers is the corporal who was listening to him from the dock and who was facing eighteen years in prison. "It was a vendetta, it wasn't mine," continued Carlos L. He also reported that he was handcuffed for five hours and that he hasn't lived in peace since then. "At any moment they can break down the door of your house. They've tried by every means to ensure that I wouldn't be here today," he said.

The call

The other two defendants are mechanics who, according to the Prosecutor's Office, were responsible for placing the illegal material in Carlos L.'s car. They were an uncle and nephew who had a history of drug trafficking and had been linked to the Casuales. The next step in the plot was a call to the San Martín police station to report Carlos L.. A certain "Alberto" (identified as one of the mechanics) asked to speak with a certain "Trinio," an officer at the station known for having informants. Alberto reported that there was a car, a Volkswagen Golf, with drugs and weapons inside in the area of ​​Francesc Macià. This is how it all started.

After Carlos L., a sergeant from the Sant Martí Investigation Unit testified. He was one of those in charge of investigating the events and, at the same time, the superior of the two accused Mossos d'Esquadra. From the start, he was suspicious: "We were the farthest police station; it didn't make sense that they were calling us." The officer who took the incriminating call detected that the caller spoke as if "he had the message memorized." "He's the one who raises all the suspicions," said the sergeant. He had no informant named Alberto. Calling the police station wasn't the way to communicate with him, and besides, they were calling him by his first name. "Everything pointed to officers being behind it," he concluded. Months later, they discovered that both officers had consulted Carlos L.'s file before the events.

"Mr. Carlos L. maintained the same version at all times, that the order had been given to him by David Caballero," continued the sergeant, specifying that they followed him but "yielded nothing." The names of the accused corporal and officer were not new to Internal Affairs: "They told us they had been after them for two years," stated the sergeant. The trial will continue on Wednesday with testimony from Internal Affairs officers.