The “Aertase” operation, promoted by the National Police against alleged crimes of coercion, threats, damages and criminal organization at the taxi rank at the Seville airport, where the headquarters of the Solidaridad Hispalense del Taxi association is located; investigated for similar facts in a judicial case initiated years ago; There are now a total of 18 taxi drivers detained, as well as approximately 20 more people under investigation who have not been detained, as sources in the case have informed Europa Press.
The same sources have specified that the actions would be commanded by the Court of Instruction number four of Seville and that among those detained would be the current leader of the Seville Taxi Solidarity Association, Antonio Velarde, and other members of the board of directors of the union entity.
The operation is based on investigations carried out by the Provincial Information Brigade of Seville and units from the Provincial Citizen Security Brigade and the IV unit of the Police Intervention Units (UIP) also participate; and is directed against the monopoly of the airport taxi rank, which has its own fixed rate; as a result of about 20 complaints over time, both from other taxi drivers and holders of authorizations for concerted transport vehicles (VTC).
This is an operation whose objective is to “clarify a situation that seems to be produced by the monopoly of a group of taxi drivers” grouped around the Solidaridad Hispalense association, who would have monopolized the taxi rank at the aerodrome on account of the fixed rate that weigh on the journeys related to it, preventing access to other taxi drivers through alleged coercion or threats.
At the end of 2021, let us remember, the Court of Instruction number eight of Seville ordered the case initiated against Solidaridad Hispalense del Taxi as a legal entity and against 27 taxi drivers of said entity to continue through the abbreviated procedure, for alleged crimes of criminal organization. , coercion and damage to monopolize the airport taxi rank, which has its own special rate with fixed prices per trip.
In said order, the investigating judge detailed that in the search carried out in June 2017 at the entity’s headquarters, located at the Seville airport, notes were discovered about the “conducts to be sanctioned and among them the imposition of 15 days” without work at the airport taxi rank “for wasting time leaving the (arrivals) tunnel empty and loading, 15 days for wasting time leaving the tunnel empty and no loading, (…), seven days for insulting or disrespecting colleagues, 30 days for trying to hit a colleague or 90 days for hitting them and even sanctions as striking as if the facilities are dirty by throwing any type of garbage on the floor, 15 days cleaning the facilities and three days racing in Seville.”
“Sanction letters have been found with the maximum penalty that they typify, which is expulsion for reasons of not attending a rally or for having missed a mobilization,” the judge determined, according to which “the very nature of the sanctions imposed reveals the exclusive domain and use of the airport stop by the association, to the extent that all the sanctions refer to the prohibition of loading at the airport stop, not the general exercise of the activity or from no other extreme, which “It clearly shows that they have the exclusive domain and use of it.”
At the point, he added that at the entity’s headquarters, the police search resulted in the discovery of “photographs of Local Police vehicles and agents, specifically of the agents who carried out the greatest number of actions in the airport facilities.” ”.
According to the judge, the association would be “a true criminal organization, a perfectly structured and hierarchical group headed by” the then president Enrique Filgueras “and behind him the other members of the board, who have been receiving direct instructions and instructions from this “, for “a monopoly on the taxi service at the Seville airport.”
However, in 2022, the Fourth Section of the Court partially upheld an appeal from Solidaridad Hispalense del Taxi, revoking the orders dated July 23 and November 12, 2021 issued by the Court of Instruction Number Eight and declaring “there is no room for extension of the investigation period”, which implied “the unusability of the proceedings agreed upon in these preliminary proceedings after 9 January 2018.
The aforementioned sources of the case have specified to Europa Press that the facts now investigated by the Investigating Court number four, although similar to those of the previous case already described, “are different and new”, forming a new procedure.
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