A man has been sentenced to six years in prison and fined two million euros after accepting a plea agreement for introducing about 30 kilos of MDMA (ecstasy) into Tenerife inside a Popeye statue weighing about 400 kilos in July 2024. The defense, represented by attorney Eva Ripollés, accepted the charges for which he was being tried and has been in prison since July 19, 2024. During the oral hearing held on Tuesday morning, the accused acknowledged the prosecution’s arguments and expressed his remorse: “I acknowledge the facts, I know it is a reprehensible behavior and I accept the penalty imposed on me,” he stated.
Additionally, the accused “was interested” in knowing how he could pay the two million euros that the court set as a fine.
The Public Prosecutor initially requested a sentence of eight years in prison and a fine of four million euros. The valuation of the narcotics seized in the controlled delivery and after a search of the accused’s home, once arrested, reached a value of 1.6 million euros.
According to the sentence, on which the parties have confirmed they will not appeal, it was proven that the convicted used a transportation company to introduce a 400-kilogram package into Tenerife under the description “personal belongings.” Inside was a statue, a Popeye figure whose base concealed four bags containing a crystalline substance, which, once analyzed, turned out to be MDMA, weighing 29.2 kilos with a purity of about 79%.
The package was sent from the port of Valencia, as stated in the records, and was to be picked up by the now-convicted man on July 15, 2024. However, he changed his strategy to collect the merchandise and hired a courier service to pick up the enormous package and deliver it to his home. Upon arrival in Tenerife of this enormous statue, it was scanned and found that the figure was not solid and had a foreign body in its base.
Therefore, once alerted, the National Police’s Provincial Drug Brigade conducted a controlled delivery on July 16. The man who had arranged the delivery service for 50 euros signed the delivery document, at which point he was arrested and taken to the police station.
The next day, with judicial authority informed, a search was authorized of his home where different packages with narcotics and other non-dangerous substances were found. In his residence, 1,039 cannabis tablets were seized, with a total weight of 26 kilos of cannabis, 9 grams of heroin, a jar with 15 grams of ketamine, 225 grams of cocaine, 685 grams of MDMA, 9,790 euros, a precision scale, various USB drives, and three mobile phones.
