The Customs Surveillance Service official observed on the screen of the He took a good look at the image reported by the advanced vehicle inspection system and verified an anomalous disposition of part of the 26 pallets of lettuce transported by the vehicle from the Region of Murcia. Civil Guard agents from the Fiscal and Borders company of the port of Bilbao verified the identity of the driver and sole occupant, 47 years old and a resident of Cieza.
Given the official's suspicions, the civil guards broke the seal and opened the rear area of the semi-trailer. At a first glance at the cargo, they verified that the seal coincided with the contract document for the shipment and delivery of goods between the companies (the CMR consignment note). Subsequently, they moved the truck to an inspection area in the port of Santurtzi, to carry out a thorough study of the merchandise. They began to unload the truck and verified that there were just over 15 tons of lettuce. But six of the pallets contained a surprise. Hidden under the vegetables they found more vegetables, specifically marijuana buds in 500 vacuum-sealed plastic bags weighing one kilo each.
The half ton of drugs, once introduced into the clandestine market, would have reached a value of just over three and a half million euros, even more so when, after analyzing it, it was found that it was a high quality variety of marijuana, with a high value in the European illegal market. The truck driver was arrested on May 26, 2022 and the next day he was placed at the disposal of the Investigative Court number 1 of Barakaldo. The agents had hunted a truck from a more than likely international road drug trafficking network. The truck driver, hired by the transport company, located in Abarán, declared that he had not loaded the merchandise, nor had he seen the merchandise, that he was only in charge of driving the truck when it was already loaded and sealed.
A 'BlaBlaCar' of trucks
The ciezano added that the transportation of the merchandise came from an order received through a cargo exchange called Timocom, something similar to a 'BlaBlaCar' of trucks. These are cargo bags that allow you to take advantage of the transporters' trips, avoiding shipping with an empty truck. The Civil Guard verified that the vehicle was sealed from its origin and that it coincided with what was declared in the CMR document, so the Barakaldo court decreed the release of the detainee and recused itself in favor of a court in the judicial district of Murcia.
Now, the investigation turned to the Region. The agents had to find out where the lettuces with excess vegetables were loaded. On the one hand, there was the company, which was listed as the owner of the lettuce export operation, based in Murcia, and on the other, the one in charge of shipping.
The case has been filed for three of the defendants, but the focus remains on the owners of the merchandise
Two of those investigated were linked to the latter. The traffic chief and the loader. Both were defended by criminal lawyer Álvaro Prieto, who would achieve the file of the case against the two in the procedure. The first was the one who received the order of transport to Ireland from the exporting company. The second was his son, and she had the job of loading the truck on a farm, located in the district of Cancarix, in Hellín (Albacete) and returning to the base of the transport company. From there the truck would leave again for Ireland, although it would finally be intercepted in the port of Bilbao.
The first truck driver who loaded the lettuce in Hellín explained that he was informed of the address of the farm, he arrived there, parked and waited inside the cabin of the vehicle while workers loaded the pallets of lettuce. “My client did not participate in the loading of the merchandise, because this is established by one of the measures approved during the covid-19 period, which prohibits truck drivers from participating in the loading or unloading of merchandise operations,” explains Prieto. He also did not know that it contained illicit substances, “since once the truck is loaded it is sealed and cannot be altered or manipulated”, something that was verified by the Civil Guard in Bilbao.
Last February, the Investigative Court number 6 of Murcia, which took over the case, estimated that the actions carried out did not “duly prove the perpetration of the crime” against the public health of the accused, so it agreed to the provisional dismissal and the case file. In this sense, the court established that the investigation should continue in relation to the owners of the merchandise that loaded the truck on the Cancarix farm.
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