The Girona Court has acquitted two defendants who faced eight years in prison after the National Police intercepted them in La Jonquera, in Alt Empordà (Girona) on September 27, 2022 while they were traveling with a motorhome where they were carrying 130 kilos. of marijuana and more than a kilo of cocaine.
The court has declared the search procedure null and void and maintains that the National Police committed "flagrant" irregularities because the agents entered the motorhome before having a court order, despite it being the residence of the defendants.
The Court agrees with the defense lawyer, Joaquim Bech de Careda, and concludes that the right to the inviolability of the home was violated. The subsequent discovery of the drug is also "flawed" and remains unpunished.
The prosecution accused the two defendants of two crimes against public health in the category of notorious importance and requested, for each of them, 8 years in prison and a fine of 900,000 euros.
At the trial, the defense lawyer argued that the entry and search procedure carried out in the motorhome was null and void because the rights of the accused had been violated. "The defense requests its annulment because it considers it proven that, prior to this search covered by all the guarantees established by law, another illegal, surreptitious entry was made, without judicial authorization, without urgency due to flagrante, without authorization of the detainees and without his presence nor that of his lawyer," the court states.
The ruling of the fourth section of the Girona Court, of which Judge Maria Vila was the speaker, agrees with the defense and indicates that the "irregularities" committed by the National Police agents who carried out the intervention are "flagrant."
The court declares it proven that around 8:30 p.m. on September 27, 2022, the National Police stopped the vehicle on the AP-7 near La Jonquera.
Inside, they located in a double bottom a total of 206 plastic bags with marijuana, with an initial weight of more than 242 kilos, and three packages with cocaine, with a gross weight of 5.6 kilos. The net amount, once weighed, was 130 kilos of marijuana and 1.34 kilos of cocaine, which would have had a value on the black market of more than 320,000 euros. The National Police arrested the defendants, who were taken to prison.
The Court considers that the agents made "a prior entry" to the motorhome without having judicial authorization.
The ruling indicates that the vehicle was the defendants' home and that, in addition, they explicitly denied entry to the police. For this reason, the sentence states that "it is surprising" that, however, the agents did not wait for a tow truck to move the vehicle to the police station parking lot and that they opted to get behind the wheel to move the motorhome: "The action seems clearly irregular, although it could be understood if the motorhome had seriously endangered traffic safety.
But what has just driven home the nail, according to the court, is "an even more flagrant irregularity", which is that the record of the entry and investigation that was carried out subsequently (already with judicial authorization) and the police report does not show that belongings of the accused, such as mobile phones or cash, were seized.
"However, in the oral trial, documentation provided by the penitentiary center was provided by the defense relating to the list of belongings deposited by both accused," states the ruling, which highlights that the fact that these objects "appeared" in prison proves that there was "a prior illegitimate entry."
"The defense's suspicions - that there was an entry into the motorhome before the car was disposed of - have been proven, not only by the police officer's testimony, who acknowledges that he actually entered to drive it, but also because the personal belongings of the accused were not were collected in the entry and investigation procedure," the court assesses.
According to the Court, this "vitiates" the search that was carried out "with all guarantees" and with judicial authorization, which is when the drugs were located.
"The second entry cannot validate the previous one because the chain of custody of the seized substances was broken," indicates the fourth section, which emphasizes that this leads to a single consequence: "Since the search of the defendants' motorhome is illegal, it is also "the evidence of finding the drugs inside is invalid." "There is, therefore, no evidence against the accused," the court concludes.
