Man acquitted of drug trafficking after security guard unlawfully searched rucksack on Malaga–Álora Cercanías train

The judges found that the search breached the defendant's fundamental rights, including his right to privacy, because it was carried out without his presence, despite the fact that he had already reported the missing bag and asked for it to be returned to him at the station. As a result, the court ruled that all evidence obtained afterwards was irretrievably tainted, leaving prosecutors unable to prove the case.

The incident took place on the evening of 5 May 2024 on a commuter train between Malaga and Álora. According to the judgment, the defendant realised he had left his rucksack on the train and asked for it to be returned to him when it reached the station.

Before police officers arrived, however, a private security guard opened the rucksack while the train was still en route. Inside, he found what the judgment described as various narcotic substances, the exact quantity of which isn't specified in the ruling, along with two precision scales and cash.

He alerted his operations centre, which informed the National Police. Officers later searched the bag again, seized the drugs, the scales and 90 euros in cash, and arrested the defendant.

During the trial, prosecutors argued that the case amounted to an offence against public health under Spanish law and sought a prison sentence of four years and six months, together with a fine of 2,000 euros.

The defence, meanwhile, maintained throughout the proceedings that the initial search was unlawful because it violated the defendant's constitutional right to privacy - and the Provincial Court agreed. It stressed that the rucksack had not been abandoned and that its owner had already identified himself and requested its return.

The judges distinguished the incident from routine security checks at railway stations and airports, where private security guards work alongside the police and luggage is normally opened by its owner or in their presence. In this case, they said, the guard chose to open the bag before requesting police assistance and without the owner's knowledge.

The court also questioned the guard's claim that he had acted in accordance with an established protocol, noting there was no evidence that such a procedure existed, or that it had been approved by Spain's Ministry of the Interior rather than simply by his private security employer.

Referring to Spain's Private Security Act, the judges said private security staff are required to assist the police, not replace them. They concluded that the guard had exceeded his legal authority, both because the rucksack belonged to an identified owner who was expecting to recover it and because it was opened before police intervention and in his absence.

The ruling warned that accepting such conduct would effectively allow private security guards to open and search the luggage of any identified traveller on purported security grounds without their knowledge or consent.

Having declared the initial search unlawful, the court ruled that every subsequent investigative step was contaminated, since police only became aware of the drugs as a direct result of that search. It held that all evidence relating to the contents of the rucksack had to be excluded from the proceedings and that, without it, an acquittal was the only possible outcome.

The Provincial Court of Malaga therefore acquitted the defendant of the offence against public health, ordered the destruction of the seized drugs and the confiscation of the precision scales, and ruled that the 90 euros taken from him at the time of his arrest should be returned.