A court in Alicante has found seven people not guilty of drug trafficking. This is because they agreed that the Guardia Civil’s search of an industrial warehouse in San Vicente del Raspeig, where they dismantled a marijuana cultivation in December 2022, was not legal.
The magistrate of the 10th Criminal Section of the Court of First Instance of Alicante said that one of the accused lived in the warehouse. The defence lawyers, including Aitor Esteban Gallastegui, Mari Paz Alarcón, and Aurora Gámez, said that this was a violation of the fundamental right to the inviolability of the home because they entered the warehouse without a court order.
The day after the arrests, a court in San Vicente gave permission for the search and seizure. However, the magistrate in the case thinks that the order cannot protect the actions of the Guardia Civil investigators, even though most of them said they didn’t know that one of the accused lived in the warehouse and only checked the inside of the building to make sure there were no other people involved.
On the other hand, several police officers, including one, said in court that they did know someone lived in the warehouse. The verdict says that even though this happened, the first attempt to make the arrests was done without a warrant to search the warehouse since one of the rooms was simultaneously being used as the home of a defendant.
Authorities found 148 mature marijuana plants and 22 kilograms of marijuana buds ready to be sold in the warehouse in the Canastell industrial park in San Vicente del Raspeig. But the defendants couldn’t use this evidence against them since the search warrant was thrown out. So, the seven defendants were found not guilty. The prosecution wanted six of them to spend three years and nine months in prison for drug trafficking and the other four to spend four years and four months in prison for stealing electricity.
Watching
The judgement says that the Civil Guard in San Vicente had been watching a warehouse in the Canastell industrial park since the beginning of November 2022 because they thought marijuana might be growing there. Their surveillance helped them find everyone who was involved in the activities they were looking into. On the afternoon of December 2, they raided the warehouse and arrested practically all of the suspects.
The ruling says that when the cops opened the building’s access door, the first thing they saw was what seemed like the “house/room” of someone, who turned out to be one of the defendants. The judge says that the Guardia Civil personnel “were fully aware” that one of the accused lived in that building all the time, even before December 2nd. The verdict goes on to say that about 7:30 p.m., they took advantage of the sliding gate in the perimeter wall of the property to unexpectedly burst into a courtyard where five people were present and were later arrested.
The ruling says that they then opened the door to the building and, even though they knew the first thing they saw was a home, they didn’t stop the operation by entering. Instead, they either secured the property to keep people from entering or leaving while they asked the resident for permission to conduct the inspection or the corresponding court order for entry and search that would allow them access. The judge said that the cops “didn’t do their due diligence and went into the house.” They examined the whole place and got to the back door, which led to another part of the building where there was an indoor marijuana grow operation.
The ruling goes on to say that the cops then chose to close and secure the house. They arrested seven people who were implicated, and the next day they asked the duty judge in San Vicente for a search order. They got the warrant and took over the marijuana farm. The court has now said that the warrant “cannot provide legal cover or validate the absolute nullity of the police search and seizure due to the violation of the fundamental right to inviolability of the home” of one of the defendants. Because the court said the search was improper, all the evidence found during it has been thrown out. Since there is no other evidence against the seven defendants, they have been told they are not guilty.
