The Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has sentenced a man to two and a half years in prison and to pay a fine of 100 euros for a crime against public health and more specifically for trafficking in synthetic drugs known as MDMA and Ketamine.
The man was arrested around midnight on August 6, 2022 in Playa de Las Américas, in Adeje, driving a car when he was intercepted by police officers who were carrying out a routine check at the Las Verónicas Shopping Center.
Once the subject was searched, seven heat-sealed bags were hidden in his pants and a sock, two of which contained 2.29 grams of ketamine with a purity of 87.5%, in one case and almost one gram in another and one more than a gram and a half of MDMA, with a purity of 61%, 18% and 79% respectively.
Inside the car, 950 euros in cash were also found, divided into bills of different value, without proving that they came from illegal sales.
In principle, the Public Prosecutor requested two years and eight months in prison and the payment of 510 euros, although in the trial held last May he finally chose to reduce the request for sentences.
That day he denied that the purpose of the seized drugs was for sale, stating that they were for his own consumption and for a group of people whose number he did not specify, except for a friend and two friends who were with him and who assured that They were going to a birthday party in a nightclub in this town.
The convicted man assured that that same night he had bought the substances in Las Verónicas for which he paid 110 euros from his savings and another 40 that his friend contributed.
They said they had paid for the substances because they were invited to a booth at the entertainment venue and that they were users when they go out to have fun once or twice a month.
The Police reported that after stopping the car they suspected that they could be carrying drugs given the man’s nervousness and that the amount is higher than that normally used for self-consumption.
In fact, the main doubt of the Chamber was whether the substances were going to be intended for sale, concluding that this was indeed the case given the quantity, variety and form of presentation.
However, they found no instruments to prepare and cut it, no transaction was observed, and the money was not an excessively high amount.
Despite all this, it could not be ruled out that the seized substances were not going to be distributed for sale among the guests at the birthday party and therefore the Court imposed the aforementioned sentence.
