A man has been sentenced to six years in prison and the payment of a two-million-euro fine after accepting a plea deal for introducing around 30 kilos of MDMA (ecstasy) into Tenerife inside a Popeye figure that weighed about 400 kilos in July 2024. The defense, represented by lawyer Eva Ripollés, accepted the charges for which he was being tried and for which he has been in prison since July 19, 2024. During the hearing, held on Tuesday morning, the accused acknowledged the arguments of the prosecution in its indictment and expressed his remorse: “I recognize the facts, I know it’s reprehensible behavior, and I accept the penalty imposed on me”, he said.
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 an eight-year prison sentence and a fine of four million euros. The valuation of the narcotic substances seized in the controlled delivery and after a search of the accused’s home reached a value of 1.6 million euros.
According to the sentence, the parties have confirmed they will not appeal, it was proven that the convicted person used a transport company to introduce a package weighing 400 kilos into Tenerife under the concept of “personal belongings.” Inside was a statue, a Popeye figure whose base concealed four bags containing a crystalline substance that, once analyzed, proved to be MDMA weighing a total of 29.2 kilos with a purity of about 79%.
The package was sent from the port of Valencia, according to the records, and was to be picked up by the convicted person on July 15, 2024. However, this man changed his strategy to retrieve the merchandise and hired a parcel service to pick up the huge package and deliver it to his home. Upon arrival in Tenerife, this massive statue was scanned, revealing that the statue was not solid and contained a foreign body at its base.
Therefore, once the Provincial Narcotics Brigade of the National Police was alerted, a controlled delivery took place on July 16. The man who had contracted the delivery service for 50 euros signed the transport delivery document, at which point he was arrested and taken to the police station.
The next day, with the judicial authority informed, an entry and search of his home were authorized. Various packages with narcotics and other substances not dangerous to health were found. In his residence, 1,039 cannabis tablets weighing 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 pendrives, and three mobile phones were seized.
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