The prosecutor has considerably reduced his request for sentences for the 81 defendants in the trial of the Miami drug trafficking and money laundering gang by applying the mitigating circumstance of undue delay of the case to all of them and to 66 of them the confession of the facts to change to accept lesser penalties.
The National Court has resumed this Tuesday the macro-trial of this organization which is attributed to the introduction into Spain between 2007 and 2011 of at least 7.5 tons of cocaine and the laundering of huge amounts of money, among other crimes, some facts for which its leader, Álvaro López Tardón, is already serving 150 years in prison in the United States.
For his brother Artemio, the prosecutor has reduced his request for a sentence from 46 to 15 years in prison for having recognized the crimes of money laundering, against the public treasury and document falsification, although he denied having participated in drug trafficking, which he continues to attribute to him The prosecutor.
Other of the main defendants, Ana María Cameno, the queen of coca, and her then husband, David Vela, for each of whom the Prosecutor’s Office requested 39 years and nine months in prison, have accepted five years in prison as a result of the agreement achieved by the defendants who have confessed all the facts to the prosecutor.
Ana María Cameno is the only defendant in this trial who is in prison, since she is serving 16 years in prison that the National Court imposed on her in another case, for the distribution of one hundred kilos of cocaine.
According to what the police who led the investigation said at the trial, this woman had a cocaine laboratory of dimensions “never seen before” on a farm in Villanueva de Perales (Madrid).
The prosecutor has considered that there have been great undue delays in a case in which the events were committed more than 12 years ago.
However, he believes that it is important that with the consent of the majority of the defendants, convictions have been secured and, above all, the recovery of not only 26 million euros in cash but also buildings, chalets, vehicles and other effects that may reach 40 million euros, all of which will go to the national anti-drug plan and, therefore, to a social destination.
Throughout the hearing, several national police officers have recalled that the plot was uncovered by the American Sharon C., then the girlfriend of Álvaro López Tardón, with whom he lived in Miami, who denounced him in revenge for the ill-treatment he received.
Sharon C. revealed that the drug that Ana María Cameno received in Spain from South America was sent to her by Álvaro López Tardón and revealed that he and his brother Artemio hid a large amount of money in their chalet on Las Azaleas avenue, in the Madrid district Hortaleza, where the Police actually found 20 million euros in a hole on the ground, five million in a partition and more than one million in the garage.
Among the defendants who have accepted sentences in exchange for confessing all the facts are those considered leaders of the various branches of the organization.
Specifically, the brothers Raúl and Víctor Juárez Smith, three years and two months in prison, when they initially faced requests from the Prosecutor’s Office for 27 and 30 years, respectively. In his case, the prosecutor has also taken into account the extenuating circumstance of drug addiction.
Likewise Lauro Sánchez Serrano, four years and six months in prison, when the prosecutor requested at the beginning of the trial for him 33 years and nine months.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project