The Algeciras headquarters of the Provincial Court of Cádiz will host the largest drug trafficking trial held so far in Spain to try Antonio Tejón, leader of one of the most active drug trafficking clans in the Campo de Gibraltar, and 151 of his collaborators.
The Anti-Drug Prosecutor requests sentences totaling 1,787 years in prison and 15,188 million euros in fines for Antonio Tejón, "el Castaña", and the collaborators with whom, even when he was in prison, he managed to weave a network with "incessant" activity to introduce hashish caches on the Andalusian coast from Morocco capable of operating even during the confinement due to the covid pandemic.
The previous issues are focusing on the macro-cause this Monday morning. Before the start of the trial, the Algeciras headquarters of the Provincial Court of Cádiz hosts prior negotiations between the parties to negotiate possible sentences of conformity, including several of two years in prison for those accused of being part of the lower echelons of the organization , according to legal sources.
In addition, the possible withdrawal of the accusations against around twenty defendants is being studied, according to the sources.
Once these preliminary conversations are over, the Seventh Section of the Hearing will host the start of the trial with the preliminary questions of the same.
The Junta de Andalucía has invested more than 150,000 euros to adapt the Seventh Section of the Provincial Court of Cádiz, its headquarters in Algeciras, for this trial.
In the hearing room on the first floor, which will house the court, prosecutors and lawyers, in addition to the majority of the defendants, the defense platform has been expanded.
The rest of the defendants will be located in the hearing rooms on the ground floor, where screens and a computer system have been installed so that they can follow the process at all times, although when they are called to testify they will do so on the first floor.
Likewise, the court will be able to see at all times images of the rest of the rooms where the accused are located through a closed circuit.
The court has scheduled 32 sessions for this new trial against the "Clan of the Chestnuts" and their cronies.
Specifically, this process is directed against Antonio Tejón, who together with his brother Francisco ("Isco"), leads this clan, and the network with which he worked in 2020, when he was still in preventive detention for another cause related to the drug trafficking
In his letter, to which EFE has had access, the Anti-Drug Prosecutor requests for him 15 years and 9 months in prison and a fine of 104 million euros for crimes against public health, reception and smuggling (for the use of prohibited drug boats) and membership in a criminal group.
The rest of the defendants are divided into two groups: the 45 who were part of the upper echelons of the organization and another hundred who worked for them and did less relevant tasks, such as surveillance or collecting bundles.
For all of them, the Prosecutor's Office requests two fines of 50 million euros, although different prison sentences depending on their tasks and their participation.
According to the Prosecutor's Office, Antonio Tejón, from prison, was in charge of coordinating a network with an "incessant" activity to introduce hashish caches on the Andalusian coast from Morocco.
In the investigation that led to the "Dismantle" operation, carried out in 2020 by the OCON SUR group of the Civil Guard, the agents followed this network that in a few months, some of them during confinement, introduced at least 9,000 kilos of hashish per the Andalusian coasts.
According to the Prosecutor's Office, Badger distributed the orders through one of his men, who visited him in jail, until he obtained provisional release, and was able to meet with members of the gang at different points until he was arrested again.
In the letter, the Prosecutor's Office recounts how the network had drug piers, boats, drones, fishing boats, tractors, trucks and a host of means to enter their caches, at a time when police pressure could make them have to divert their income to Huelva or other points on the Andalusian coast and manage to hide the drug boats.
Antonio Tejón returns to the defendant's dock, just four months after being acquitted in another case.
In it, he was tried together with his brother "Isco" and fourteen other people for his alleged relationship with two caches of hashish that were intercepted in 2016 in La Línea de la Concepción (Cádiz).
Although the prosecution had requested 20 years in prison and a four million euro fine for the two brothers, the court only sentenced "Isco" to three years and one month in prison for a crime against public health for hashish trafficking, and He acquitted the rest, considering that his direct link with those two caches could not be "considered proven".
