The Prosecutor's Office requests 15 years in prison for the former anti-drug chief of the Police in Alicante

The former chief inspector of the Drug and Organized Crime Unit (Udyco) of the National Police in Alicante, Javier Méndez, was allegedly part of the largest cocaine multinational dismantled in the Valencian Community. And, for this reason, the Prosecutor's Office is asking for this official, who in 2013 gave lectures on the dangers of white powder, 15 years in prison for the crimes of drug trafficking, bribery and revelation of secrets, according to a letter from the public ministry to that EL PAÍS has had access to.

Méndez, whose case was uncovered by this newspaper, attended 24 meetings and lunches since 2018 in Dénia, Jávea and Alicante with the leadership of this organization that moved 4,000 kilos of cocaine. In parallel, he advised and informed two ringleaders of the network about whether they were being investigated and participated in the business racket that the plot used to launder crime money through the high-end car dealership Designcars in Dénia, according to the ministry. public in a writing signed by prosecutor María del Carmen Ballester.

The vehicle sales establishment connected to Alicante's anti-drug police czar owned 70 cars. Brands such as Infinity, Jaguar, Austin, Maserati, Porsche and Ferrari fueled the offering of this front company for which Méndez worked “buying and selling cars,” according to the Prosecutor's Office.

The official acquired passenger cars, which were then renovated in a clandestine workshop run by an agent and a sub-inspector, who were paid black. The fleet was later distributed through a commercial scheme linked to another drug lord with a history of 19 arrests for drug trafficking, fraud and illicit association.

Accused of handling 80,000 euros of unknown origin, Méndez was removed from the Alicante police station and suspended from employment and salary, according to his lawyer. And today he is on the bench. The judge of the National Court José Luis Calama proposed last June to try him in one of the branches of the so-called Operation Beautiful.

Together with this official, who strengthened his ties with the organization between 2018 and 2019, when he was head of the Central Unit for Specialized and Violent Crime (Udev), the Prosecutor's Office requests 749 years in prison and a sentence for the other 68 defendants of the criminal mechanism. fine of 435 million.

Headed by Juan Andrés Cabeza Pedrada, the four-member leadership of this plot decapitated in 2019 faces a request from the public ministry of 18 years in prison for prosecution and 217 million in fines.

Along with Cabeza Pedrada, a drug trafficker who hid 1.5 million in 500, 200 and 100 euro bills in three suitcases in his house, at the top of the chain were the elusive José Constante Piñeiro, Costiña, a drug trafficker whose sphere of influence silently plans through the Galician Rias Baixas; and Jonas Sture Falk, The Swedish Pablo Escobarwho was arrested in Ibiza in 2022. The Prosecutor's Office is asking for 18 years in prison and a fine of 217 million for both.

Pablo Vioque Lages, son of drug trafficker lawyer Pablo Vioque, faces 10 years in prison for drug trafficking. The public ministry places him in the Galician branch of the structure, connects him with a stash in Boiro (A Coruña) and indicates that his task was to transport cocaine to Spain from the countries of origin. It was, the researchers maintain, the Galicia-Valencia link of the gear.

The list of defendants also includes a lawyer from Alicante who moved the precious substance, went to the loading and unloading points, and attended meetings of the plot; already a bodybuilder of 1.85 meters and 130 kilos in weight, known as The Tiger and that he was dedicated to collecting debts by expeditious methods. A burly, well-known MMA (mixed martial arts) fighter helped the plot with the distribution of drugs in Alicante.

The alleged drug trafficker Diego Moreno, who was advised in his day-to-day life by the former head of the National Police in Alicante, is also on trial – and faces a request from the 12-year-old Prosecutor's Office; an official who investigated Moreno in 2008 and 2012 and testified in his favor in a case before the Special Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office. Moreno financed the “criminal” operations of the plot with cash and participated in meetings with Colombian citizens in which the group's businesses were planned, according to the public ministry in a document dated January 24.

Among the network's large operations, the attempt to place a total of 1,759 packages with 2,020 kilos of cocaine by ship in Galicia in 2018 stood out. The merchandise would have reached a market value of more than 60 million (104 if it had been distributed by grams). Investigators also seized 1,300 kilos of white powder on a beach in Tulcea (Romania) and in 2019 dismantled a processing laboratory with 14 kilos of cocaine in Oliva (Valencia).

The structure to which Inspector Méndez belonged was made up of old well-known Galician and Valencian drug traffickers and he secretly set up a mechanism to move the merchandise and launder his loot with tentacles, front men and front companies in Romania, Sweden, Portugal and Colombia.

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