Manuel Pedro Gonzalez Rubio, one of the alleged human couriers human couriers which, according to the instructor of the Audiencia Nacional (AN), was one of those who attempted to to smuggle almost 900,000 euros out of Spain to Colombia. which belonged to the Galician drug trafficker José Ramón Prado Bugallo, known as Sito Miñancohas argued in a recent brief sent to the court that will try him that the amount was in fact his.
In a letter sent to the Third Section of the Criminal Court, which comes just a few days before the start of the trial against Sito Miñanco and almost fifty other people, González Rubio now maintains that that “the money was and is in reality” his. This is a change with respect to what he declared as investigated in 2020, when he pointed out that the amount transported by several human couriers -his relatives- was hidden in suitcases. had been smuggled by another of the defendants.Manuel Puentes Saavedra.
“The money to put it in the suitcases, who put the money in?” asked the prosecutor, to which he replied that it was Puentes Saavedra and that he himself had recognized it “in a statement”. That statement he was referring to is that of July 2019, when Puentes Saavedra explained, rectifying previous versions, that in reality that money that ended up in the suitcases was given to him by an acquaintance and that the amount was Sito Miñanco’s.who was looking to get it to Colombia by way of retirement.
Now, Gonzalez Rubio returns to the first statement he made after being detained and again maintains that the money was actually his.. “That the money deposited for the purpose of responding to the responsibilities that may eventually be deduced, until there is a final judgment to the contrary, is the property of the persons from whom it has been seized, recognizing the same that the money was and is in reality Manuel Pedro González Rubio’s,” says his defense. And he adds a request, that the money owned by him “be given in payment to the three national policemen” who were wounded. in a shootout in which he was the protagonist in order to meet civil liability.
For González Rubio, the Prosecutor’s Office asks for 43 years in prison for the crimes of money launderingforgery of official documents, homicide Attempted homicide, assault and battery, illegal possession of weapons and assault against law enforcement officers.
Legal sources consider that this change of criterion is relevant and that it could fully affect the prosecution which is maintained in this case against attorney Gonzalo Boye, whom the prosecutor is asking for almost 10 years in prison for money laundering. They explain that if the money belonged to González Rubio, they assume that it did not belong to Sito Miñanco and therefore it was not money to be laundered for the drug trafficker.
Operation Myth
It should be recalled that the Audiencia Nacional (AN) has set November 18 as the date for the start of the trial and that the trial will take place on November 18. Boye, Sito Miñanco and 46 other individuals and 5 legal entities will sit in the dock. for their alleged involvement in the Mito operation. The Anti-Drug Prosecutor’s Office requests 31 years and 6 months in prison for the drug trafficker Galician and 9 years and 9 months in prison for the lawyer.
Boye, in particular, was prosecuted by the prosecutor for an alleged crime of money laundering. All of this for his alleged participation in the operation for recover 889,620 euros that the police had seized. to alleged members of Sito Miñanco’s organization at Madrid Barajas airport.
These human couriers, who were carrying the money hidden in suitcases to move it to Colombia, were arrested in February 2017 at the Madrid airfield. Then, according to the magistrate’s account, the ‘narcos’ contacted Boye and another lawyer, Jesús Morán Castro, to prepare some documents to justify the legal origin of the money.
Boye and two other lawyers will sit on the bench for their alleged involvement in the preparation of documents and contracts of sale and purchase of bills of exchange to recover the money seized by the police. It should be recalled that this process started as a result of the operation known as Operation Mito, focused on the network allegedly led by Sito Miñanco, who tried unsuccessfully to introduce more than 4,000 kilos of cocaine into Spain in two different operations that were truncated by the investigators who had been on his trail since 2016.
That organization, according to the judge, was mainly dedicated to the importation and distribution of narcotic substances (especially cocaine) and money laundering. Thus, while some members of the network were exclusively in charge of providing the money in ‘b’, a third used false credits between family members to justify the delivery of that money in their accounts, while another member used his security company to issue false invoices.