Court acquits three Malaga residents who spent 17 months in jail for huge cocaine haul

Three people from Malaga who spent 17 months behind bars for allegedly smuggling 899 kilos of cocaine from Colombia into Spain via containers of avocados have been acquitted of all charges.

The National Court concluded they were not guilty of forming a drug trafficking network that allegedly helped import the drugs intercepted at the port of Algeciras in 2018. Two of the acquitted are residents of Vélez-Mélaga and the third lives in Marbella. The court considered that there was no evidence that proved that the defendants were guilty of the charges of drug trafficking or using false official documents.

One of the acquitted men is former National Police officer Francisco Mena. The 66-year-old was posted at Vélez-Málaga police station until 2006 when he took a leave of absence and set up a tropical fruit import company in the town. On the morning of 22 November 2018, just as he was leaving his home, he was approached by dozens of officers from the Drugs and Organised Crime Unit (Udyco) and was arrested.

His mobile phone had been tapped for more than a year and the name of his company exposed by an undercover agent. Mena had reportedly had conversations and business dealings with another local man. The 58-year-old was also an importer of tropical fruit. The two, and Moroccan man, 41, who was a business partner of both and based in Marbella, were arrested for the 899-kilo haul of cocaine.

The three men were represented by law firm AJF Cid Abogados of Velez-Malaga, David Cuenca Morón of Cuenca Morón Abogados, and Juan Manuel Aido Montañez. Following the evidence provided throughout proceedings, which took place in October last year, it could not be proven that the three defendants were guilty, the National Court ruled. The public prosecution, which had asked for 15 years' prison for each man, has not filed an appeal. Two of the acquitted men paid 20,000 euros in bail, and the third paid 100,000 and was released from prison a month and a half before the others.

Market value of more than 77 million

The cocaine - which was stashed inside 26 backpacks hidden inside pallets of avocados - had a purity level of 80.9% and would have reached an estimated market value of 30,392,493 euros. With lower levels of purity, its value would have reached 77,901,394 euros (at 38%) and 53,148,880 euros (at 53%), according to the court ruling.

The drugs were discovered during a routine customs inspection. After they were confiscated the container was allowed to continue on its way.

When the truck with the rest of the pallets arrived at the facilities of the company in Vélez-Málaga, one of the acquitted businessmen made several phone calls to the forwarding company, to customs and to the 112 emergency service, "receiving another from the police number 091, in which he explained the incident of a missing pallet in a container of fruit that had been imported from Colombia and that had been inspected at the port of Algeciras", according to the sentence.

Proceedings against a fourth person who was also arrested and investigated, but who did not stand trial, were also thrown out after the prosecutor dropped the drug trafficking charges. The National Court issued an order requesting that the money, assets and vehicles that may have been seized during the proceedings, as well as the bail bonds, be returned to the defendants.

"They ruined my life," said Francisco Mena, whose lawyers say they will sue the State for damages.