Ricardo Álvarez-Ossorio, 52, was born in Vigo, but grew up in Cádiz. His father was a merchant marine and he wanted to study computer science, but he didn’t get the grade and he went into law. Today he is known as the devil’s advocate because he represents big names in organized crime, although he also approached to the Pope with the Scrinium case (related to the trust company for the Vatican secret archives) and diversifies: he defended Cándido Conde-Pumpido, son of the president of the Constitutional Court, accused of sexual assault in a case that was later archived. His Instagram account is a collage luxury: a Rolls-Royce, many swimming pools in paradisiacal landscapes, many awards (such as the “Golden Toga”). He is the inspiration for the protagonist of the series Marbella (Movistar), based, in turn, on a report published in EL PAÍS.
Ask. How is he and what is not similar to that lawyer played by Hugo Silva?
Answer. Hugo spent a few days with me, he is dressed the same as me, but the lawyer in the series commits all kinds of crimes. He dabbles in illegality.
Q. Have you ever crossed that line or been offered it?
R. They have offered it to me many times. In criminal law, you know the ones who send [droga], those who transport… And one asks you: “Can you introduce me to…?” The act of introducing one client to another is already criminal. Imagine designing the business plot to bring coca. But yes, there are lawyers who are involved. When they came with the boss of Movistar to prepare the series, I introduced them to very delicate and inaccessible people. Of the bad and the good. They decided that the lawyer would be the common thread of all the faunas: that of crime, that of the night, that of politics… In the series all those links are corrupt, but I take it with humor.
Q. His first case, as a public defender, was with a hashish trafficker. He paid the bail out of his own pocket. Was it an investment?
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R. I was 23 years old and that case came to me by mistake. You’re not new to being a doctor by operating on a heart either, but it was my baptism of fire. They asked for six years. He hired me as a private lawyer and gave me half a million pesetas. I asked for his release and they granted it to me, with bail. Since I had what he had given me, I paid for it. Then he gave me the triple. When he came out, people asked him how he got it and word of mouth… But I didn’t pay the deposit as an investment. He was so excited that he wanted to show off and come out now.
Q. At that time you also worked in a bank, right?
R. Yes. In the bank I earned 80,000 pesetas [480 euros] a month. With that case I earned a year’s salary in 48 hours. And the bank ran out [ríe].
Q. How did it go for that client afterwards?
R. Bad. The problem in that profession [traficante] The thing is that, unless they are jugglers of self-control, they end up hooked on easy money, on adrenaline… I have had clients who had money for ten lives and when I asked them why they kept gambling, they responded that they couldn’t give it up and also They wanted to go on the boat. But they end up catching everyone.
Q. And today what rates do you handle? How much is an hour of your time worth?
R. I don’t charge by the hour. There is no standard price. It depends on whether they ask for many or few years…
Q. By how much have you multiplied those 80,000 pesetas that you earned in the bank?
R. For long. But last year they did five inspections by the Treasury and they gave me a good report.
Q. The last whim.
R. Wow, I’m very capricious. A Fiat Campagnola from the sixties. I like it because it is something special, it is not a Porsche, it is unique, difficult to find and have. There are very few units in the world.
Q. Sometimes it seems that the small trafficker falls and not the boss. To what extent would you say that a criminal’s money influences, for example, Justice? Is freedom, besides for the innocent, for those who can pay for it?
R. Well, that’s as much as saying that health is for those who can pay for a good hospital. There’s a universal system that covers everyone, but obviously if you go to Mount Sinai… When you have more resources you can access more specialized people who can see things that other people miss.
Q. And could that mean going to jail or not?
R. That exactly means whether or not to go to jail. Either leave or not leave.
Q. How many prison sentences do you think you have avoided in all these years?
R. In 30 years, at 150 cases per year, there are about 4,500. He would say that in hundreds of them I have achieved an unexpected result, where the usual thing would have been a conviction.
Q. Judges may have doubts or remorse when putting someone in prison or letting them go free. And the lawyers? Do you have regrets?
R. No, because unlike the judges, I can choose. I’m not going to deny a pedophile the right to a lawyer, but I’m not going to defend him. I never take a case where the victim is not partially to blame. For example, in a hashish or cocaine issue, the victim is the consumer and no one forces him or her. Homicides? Yes, I defend them, but from settling scores or things like that, and anyone who gets involved in organized crime knows that that can happen to them. If you’re an architect, they don’t shoot you.
Q. Do you say yes or no more times?
R. I say yes many more times because people already know me and know what I don’t take.
Q. In the EL PAÍS report that inspired the series, a police chief said: “The Costa del Sol is a UN of gangsters. “Marbella is a tourist and criminal brand.” Has your client portfolio run parallel to that evolution: from small traffickers to big names in organized crime?
R. It has changed a lot. I started in the Bay of Cádiz area. Then there was a kind of criminal outbreak in Ceuta, when the latest Mercedes model arrived first at that dealership. For many years it had Muslim clients and a small proportion of peninsular Christians. That spread. The Costa del Sol is a melting pot of cultures, not just crime.
Q. How many nationalities are your clients?
R. Of all! Let’s see, there are few Australians or sub-Saharans, but Europeans, all of them, and Mexicans, North Americans, Canadians…
Q. Your oldest client, how long has he been with you?
R. There are three types of clients: the old one, who has died in one way or another; the clever one, who has set up a couple of businesses and has known how to retire on time; and the one where you take him out nine times, but in the end he falls.
Q. What percentages are there of all that: dead, retired, prisoners?
R. I would say 15%-15%-70%.
Q. And what relationship do you have with them?
R. There are waiters who are horny, bitter, gentlemen, rude… That applies to dentists and criminals. They do not have a homogeneous profile. It’s delicate to make friends with them because one day a bullet that wasn’t meant for you could hit you. Once, in Ceuta, I was going to pick up a client from the ferry to go to court, and when I sat down I saw that he had a machine gun under the seat.
Q. Have you ever been afraid while working?
R. I have been concerned because some have a complicated profile, not because they are violent, as many are violent, but because they are paranoid. When a person is in prison and has nothing to do but think, he may decide that another rival gang has paid you to keep him in prison. I have ever had to resolve that situation.
Q. As?
R. Talking.
Q. Talking?
R. You talk to him so that he understands it and if he doesn’t understand it, you talk to someone to make him understand it, because there are many people who have their lives, their freedom, their future in my hands and they don’t want it because of a deranged person. suddenly seen in the air. But it has been two or three times. Very anecdotal.
Q. Have you ever seen a reckoning?
R. Physically no.
Q. But he has handled many cases of that type.
R. Many. These people cannot go to the police and say: “They stole my drugs.” A dealer sells you a car for 20,000 euros and earns 20%, but if it is stolen he loses about five sales. The same thing happens with drugs, if the transporter is robbed, he is responsible for the 1,000 kilos, and there is a chain of pressure to recover it, which is what causes shootings, kidnappings…
Q. In just over a month there have been five shootings in Marbella. As a resident, are you worried about insecurity?
R. Yes, because they are indiscriminate shootings… wherever they go, whoever is in front. But I think it will go down. The Government will have to give a response. With five patrols at certain points, the deterrent effect would be immediate. And on the other hand, the system regulates itself because organized crime understands that it is not good for its ecosystem to stir up the hornet’s nest.
Q. One of his first fat clients was El Nene, a drug trafficker from the Strait who disappeared. What do you think happened to him? Do you have information or any theories?
R. Next question.
Q. On his office’s website he boasts of having freed the “most wanted fugitive in the United Kingdom”, drug trafficker Alex Male. How did he do it?
R. He escaped via the classic route, Lisbon-Istanbul-Dubai, with a false passport. They arrested him and we filed an appeal due to a problem with the translator, which had not properly reflected his opposition to the extradition.
Q. English translation problem?
R. Yes. When he was released, I went to look for him and he had the NCA [Agencia Nacional del Crimen del Reino Unido] behind. They had already announced that I was detained and on the way and they wanted to strangle me.
Q. It is also in the case of EncroChat, a hidden communication system that allowed thousands of criminals to be arrested around the world. He maintains that this procedure was not legal.
R. When you tap phones in one country and the person is in another, in some way, you are invading their sovereignty. There is an EU agreement, but when that happens it must be communicated to the country in question. For bureaucratic and operational convenience, which is what always happens, nothing was communicated. And the European Court of Justice has established that a judicial authority must review the legality of the measure. All this is going to cause many causes to collapse.
Q. Do you have many clients there?
R. More than 40 from different countries.
![The actor Hugo Silva, in a moment in the series 'Marbella', where he plays a lawyer inspired by Ricardo Álvarez-Ossorio.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/46THRZS7WNAJNAECO7GWDSEDQM.jpg?auth=2b33a1128da632e0b608f04a477651b0362becf34678102156d732f0bc2875c5&width=414)
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