The Provincial Court of Alicante has sentenced a man to a total of ten years in prison. He was arrested last year by the National Police in Alicante while driving a van with 20 kilos of cocaine hidden inside an industrial heel-polishing machine. The court imposed an eight-year sentence for drug trafficking and a further two years for the illegal possession of a gun seized from him. It also sentenced three other people to prison terms ranging from one to three years. Two other defendants, represented by lawyers Roberto Sánchez Martínez and Aitor Esteban Gallastegui, were acquitted.
According to the facts established in the judgement issued by the First Section of the Provincial Court of Alicante, the Drug and Organised Crime Unit (UDYCO) of the National Police in Alicante began an investigation in February of last year into one of the six defendants who lived in Torrellano and was involved in supplying narcotics to third parties. This defendant lived with a woman who was acquitted of the drug trafficking charge against her, as it was not proven that she carried out “any act intended to facilitate said illicit trafficking.”
Police surveillance of this address in Torrellano led to the identification of the remaining defendants, as well as a van in which the police seized the drugs on 7th March 2025 at the entrance to Alicante, as the driver was heading to his home in San Vicente del Raspeig. That morning, the van was followed as it headed towards Villena, but the police lost track of it and set up surveillance to locate it on its return. This occurred around 8:30 p.m., when officers intercepted the van as it arrived on the Alicante highway. Inside, they found an industrial heel-polishing machine and, inside it, a sports bag containing 20 packages of cocaine, each weighing approximately one kilogram. The seized drugs had an estimated street value of 610,120 euro.
Following the discovery, police carried out searches at properties in Torrellano Alto and El Moralet in Alicante, and in the Los Girasoles residential area of San Vicente del Raspeig, where the van’s driver lived. During these raids, they seized cocaine, hashish, marijuana, equipment related to drug cultivation and processing, cash, and a live revolver. According to the police, they also confiscated approximately fifty bottles equipped with valves and chemicals used to produce the potent drug “BHO” (butane hash oil), a concentrated cannabis oil that can reach up to 80% THC, the psychoactive component of marijuana.
The court found it proven that the driver arrested with 20.05 kilos of cocaine, with a purity of 84.6%, was involved in drug trafficking, and the court did not find credible the exculpatory version given by the defendant during the trial. The accused claimed that a complete stranger called him to hire him to transport drugs from Madrid to Dénia, for which he was paid 550 euro. He stated that he was given a machine to deliver near Dénia and returned to Alicante, denying that he performed any counter-surveillance manoeuvres while being followed by the police.
In addition to this driver sentenced to ten years, the court also sentenced another defendant to three years in prison and a fine of 8,320 euro for drug trafficking, and two other people to one year in prison and a fine of 21,030 euro each for drug trafficking. Two of them received a mitigating circumstance of drug addiction.
Conversely, the court acquitted two defendants, finding insufficient evidence to prove their involvement in drug trafficking. In one of the cases, the court noted that simply living with a drug trafficker and being aware of the activity are not enough to secure a conviction unless active collaboration is proven.
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