Priest arrested on drug charges on Costa del Sol provisionally released after exercising right not to testify

Carlos Loriente García - the 45-year-old priest from Toledo who was arrested for allegedly carrying ten doses of designer drugs in Torremolinos on 22 September - has exercised his right not to testify before the court. As a result, he has been provisionally released, but the investigation into a potential crime against public health is still ongoing.

The priest was intercepted in the early hours of Monday with a number of various narcotic substances that exceeded what could be interpreted as an amount for personal consumption.

The clergyman was visiting the Costa del Sol as he had apparently rented a holiday flat in Torremolinos, which he shared with several young people. According to sources, they had been consuming narcotic substances on the premises. Late at night, one of the young men started to demonstrate dangerous behaviour on the balcony, even threatening to throw himself off.

Upon their arrival at the scene, National Police officers calmed the individual and searched his companions, finding among the priest's belongings up to ten doses of psychotropic substances that could be MDMA and mephedrone. The exact nature of the substances is yet to be confirmed.

The priest ageed to let the police search the flat, where the police found traces of drug use, a precision scale and a single-dose sachet of drugs. Loriente García was arrested and placed at the disposal of the Torremolinos court.

The Archbishopric of Toledo has issued a statement confirming the arrest of the priest and expressing "deep concern over the events that led to his arrest". The church also expressed their condemnation of any criminal conduct that the priest may have committed and expressed "their full confidence in justice".

Although it consider that the responsibility lies in the detainee, the church has expressed their willingness to collaborate with the police. For the moment, the priest is provisionally removed from the exercise of his ministry and his office. "The Archbishopric apologises to the people of God for the moral damage that may have been caused by the alleged crimes of a priest of the archdiocese," the statement ended.