The dismantling of the entire Merida Police Narcotics group in September 2021 continues to have consequences. The Investigating Court number 4 of the capital of Extremadura has filed the case for drug trafficking against an individual who was seized 52 grams of cocaine that, guarded by the accused police officers, have disappeared without a trace.
Internal Affairs: “There is a serious problem of police corruption in the southern part of Spain”
Further
In an order to which elDiario.es has had access, Judge Juan Antonio Sánchez Romo notes that “the toxic substances seized in this proceeding have disappeared.” As described by the magistrate, the seized cocaine has not been sent to the National Institute of Toxicology -a mandatory procedure for the identification and description of the substance- and it is not in the possession of the “acting police force”, in this case the Narcotics group of Merida.
“After what happened with the Narcotics team of the National Police in the summer of 2021, in which the substances subject to investigation are seized”, affirms the judge regarding the ‘modus operandi’ of the detainees, agrees to transfer it to the Prosecutor’s Office for the final file of the case.
In September 2021, the five members of the Merida Narcotics group were arrested for constituting “a criminal organization” dedicated to marijuana trafficking. Among the practices that the head of the Investigating Court number 3 of Mérida and the Internal Affairs Unit attribute to them is the theft of money, narcotic substances and instruments for the cultivation of cannabis when the judicial secretary was not present in the records.
The proceedings show how the two officials who took charge of the substance seized (52.25 grams) by the Citizen Security Brigade were two of the members of the Narcotics group, one of them their boss, Francisco Javier N. The seizure and custody of the drug occurred on June 25, 2021, just two months before Internal Affairs broke up the group of corrupt agents.
An advanced investigation
The judge in the police case is currently awaiting the Provincial Court to grant him an extension in the investigation until next October, according to sources from the Superior Court of Justice of Extremadura. Several of the main defendants were called to testify again this May, but according to legal sources they once again refused to answer the questions of the judge and the parties. The investigation, they say, is practically completed and is heading towards the oral trial phase.
The agents are accused of keeping money from the traffickers in the registers when the court lawyer was not present; of stealing thousands of euros in material for marijuana plantations and then handing it over to his confidants; of provoking drug deliveries to add detainees and seizures; to notify his collaborators that other agents were investigating them; and also to share marijuana plantations with traffickers in the area, something unprecedented until now.
When the arrests became known, it was learned that the five members of the group were accused, but the total number of police officers investigated amounts to 10: we must add another five who in the past were companions of the detainees. Among those who were active at the time of the arrest is the presumed leader, the policeman Javier G. ‘El Canario’, who despite being a ‘low’ police officer, exercised ascendancy over the other members of the group, according to the instruction. Among the defendants is his father, a former member of the narcotics group and now retired due to injuries in the line of duty.
