The two Britons arrested for collaborating in an attempted prison break in Ibiza in October today denied the drug trafficking charges attributed to them by the Guardia Civil for substances found, after being arrested, in the home of one of them, a storage room and a container. The accused, aged 23 and 29, were arrested for allegedly having collaborated last October in the assault on a Civil Guard van that was transporting a prisoner. According to sources close to the trial, the inmate is a leading figure in a British drug trafficking network, held in Ibiza following an international search warrant.
However, the facts that the Provincial Court is now investigating are not related to the escape effort - a case that is still under investigation - but to an alleged supply of drugs in which, according to the Guardia Civil, these two young men were also implicated. The drugs were found in the home of one of them, a rented storage room and a container belonging to a warehouse company, which were searched after the escape attempt. Various quantities of ketamine, hashish, cocaine and MDMA, worth more than 237,000 euros, as well as split cash (more than 70,000 euros, £8,800 and 520 US dollars) were seized at these locations.
Effects related to the assault on the van were also found, according to an officer, who did not give further details due to the case being under wraps, other than the fact that the suspects had used firearms in the incident. The officers also seized a large quantity of boxes of nitrous oxide (’laughing gas’).
The two young men, who have only answered their defences, have cleared themselves of the substances found and of any drug trafficking business, claiming that they were in Ibiza temporarily: one on holiday - he was arrested as he was about to catch a flight back to London - and the other as a remote worker.
As for the drugs found in the house, the inhabitant has assured that they did not belong to him but to his flat mates. In fact, he has stated that he himself told the agents where they could find a package with drugs in the kitchen because he thought that “the best thing was to cooperate with the police: I had seen one of my flat mates put those bags, and when the police came I suspected that it was something illegal and I told them: ‘There might be something in this cupboard’”.
The Guardia Civil claims it has links between the young man to the storage room, in addition to a series of surveillance, because the corresponding keys were in his backpack. He excused himself by saying that a friend had asked him to keep them for him during a trip and that he did not know what they opened. He is also linked to the discovery of a SIM card with the same phone number written on it as the one in the drugs’ storage room.
In any case, both have admitted to having been in the warehouse complex, but to visit other storage rooms belonging to friends who kept personal belongings - an old mattress, suitcases, a bicycle, diving equipment, etc. - for them. The numbers of these storerooms are close to the one containing the drugs. The defendants do not recognise themselves in the images of the security cameras collected by the Guardia Civil, which are supposedly incriminating.
In this regard, the defendants have said that they do not know the persons who appear as holders of the rental contracts. According to the Guardia Civil, one of these names is a false identity used by one of the defendants, according to the testimony of an employee of the company. The other name would correspond to a real person, also investigated in connection with the attempted escape but never seen accessing the complex.
The prosecutor is asking for eight years in prison and a fine of 945,000 euros for each of them. The defences, for their part, have raised possible nullities due to possible irregularities in the origin of the case. Both defendants have been in pre-trial detention since October.
The Guardia Civil identified at least two other people who were also linked to the group under investigation, but who left the country before they could be arrested. The foiled escape took place on 9 October, when two armed hooded men intercepted an official Guardia Civil van transporting a prisoner on a medical leave.
The two hooded men cut off the official vehicle with an off-road vehicle, a struggle ensued and although the convict was temporarily able to free himself, he was eventually arrested again.
The following morning, firefighters extinguished a fire in a vehicle with the same characteristics as the one used in the failed prison break. The case continues.