The case of ‘narco-submarine’ sunk in the Aldán estuary of Pontevedra, in Cangas do Morrazo, on November 24, 2019, began this Monday in the second section of the Provincial Court. On the bench, 7 defendants. Each of them faces a 13 and a half years in prison for a crime against public health and a multimillion-dollar financial compensation: two joint fines of 300 million euros.
The three crew members of the semi-submersible – the man from Vigo and two Ecuadorians – pleaded guilty but disagreed with the penalties. They acknowledged the facts to the prosecutor, but only in regard to the three of them. They only answered questions from their lawyers, without giving any information about the others involved out of “fear for my life and that of my family.”
What’s more, argued economic reasons to justify their participation in the events. Galician Agustín Álvarez Martínez said that he had boarded the submarine for money but denied that he piloted it. The same motivation was claimed by his traveling companions: Pedro Delgado Manzaba claimed to have done so because “he had a two-year-old boy with cancer & rdquor; and Luis Tomás Benítez Manzaba “because of the economic crisis in my country.” The three crew members have been in provisional prison since the end of 2019.
On the other hand, four other defendants, which according to the prosecutor were those who were waiting for the drugs on the ground and had coordinated the entire operation, they defended their innocence.
The accused
Except for the pilot and the two crew members, the rest are on provisional release. Agustín Álvarez Martínez (from Vigo, in prison and who was supposedly a pilot of the submersible), Luis Tomás Benítez Manzaba (in prison, of Ecuadorian nationality and crew member), Pedro Delgado Manzaba (in prison, of Ecuadorian nationality and crew member), Iago Serantes ( on provisional freedom, from Vigo and who the investigators considered the leader of the plot, residing in Palma), Enrique Carlos Iago Serantes Giráldez (on probation, from Vigo and father of the previous one), Rodrigo Hermida Movilla (from Santiago de Compostela, released conditional, residing in Vigo and man who supposedly waited on the beach of O Foxo for the arrival of the crew of the narco-submarine) and Iago Rosende (on probation, from Vigo and residing in Lleida).
Crimes and penalties
According to the indictment of the Prosecutor’s Office, three of the accused (the crew of the ‘narco-submarine’) acted at the service of an international criminal structure whose purpose was to carry a cocaine shipment from Brazil to Spain, aboard a semi-submersible device. To do this, they had the collaboration, in various functions, of the rest of the accused, who were aware of the illegality of what they were doing.
Due to these facts, the Public Ministry considers the accused to be the authors of a Crime against public health, concurring with the subtype “super taxed” due to the amount of drugs and the use of the boat, and committed by people integrated into international criminal networks. Thus, it asks that each of the defendants be sentenced to 13 and a half years in prison, and pay two fines of 300 million euros.
More than 3,000 kilos of drugs
The Civil Guard, National Police and Tax Agency launched a surveillance operation in mid-November 2019 after receiving an alert from the Center for Analysis and Maritime Operations on Drug Trafficking, based in Lisbon, about the presence of a semi-submersible sailing across the Atlantic towards the Galician coast. It transported more than 3,000 kilos of cocaine in 152 bundles, with a market value of 123 million euros.
The defendants’ plan was to go out to meet the ‘submarine’ where the drug was transported, at the entrance to the Aldán estuary, and transfer it, although they finally changed their strategy, and they planned to sink the semi-submersible, pick up the its crew, a Galician and two Ecuadorian citizens, and later recover the drug.
The boat was a self-propelled naval device, without the ability to fully submerge and with a wet exhaust device to avoid thermal detection through radars, as well as a silencer to attenuate the noise of the exhaust gases. It had a 6-cylinder diesel engine and a capacity to store 20,000 liters of fuel, which allowed it to make long journeys without refueling.
Surprised on the beach
In the early morning of November 24, one of those involved traveled to the vicinity of the meeting point in a car, in whose trunk he carried the three bags with clothes and prepared food, in order to supervise the arrival of the crew and the drug.
But his plans were truncated because he was surprised by a crew of the Civil Guard (who were unaware of the anti-drug operation) and, after inventing an excuse to explain his presence on the beach, he left the place. However, the lights of his car were shining towards the sea, and that was how the agents they discovered the three crew members of the ‘narco-submarine’ coming out of the water.
Two of the occupants of the semi-submersible were arrested practically at the time, while the third, the Galician, managed to run away and hide in a house in Punta Couso, although he was located several days later and arrested. The investigations also led to the arrest of the other four implicated.