Puigdemont’s lawyer will go to trial for laundering Sito Miñanco drug trafficking

2023-10-26 14:35:44

The National Court confirmed this Thursday that the lawyer Gonzalo Boyewhich represents the former Catalan president Carles Puigdemontwill go to trial accused of a crime of laundering drug trafficking from the clan of José Ramón Prado Bugallo, alias Sito Miñanco, the well-known Galician trafficker.

In an order dated this Wednesday, October 25, the Appeals Chamber chaired by the president of the National Court, José Ramón Navarro, has rejected the last appeal of the lawyer Boye in which he maintained the lack of jurisdiction of this judicial body to prosecute him. for a crime of money laundering in relation to Operation Mito, the alleged introduction into Spain of almost four tons of cocaine directed by Miñanco, and the network created to hide the benefits obtained.

The magistrates confirm the resolution of July 26 by the Third Section of the Criminal Chamber in which it rejected an article previously issued in which the lawyer requested that the exception of res judicata and the declination of jurisdiction be upheld.

The magistrates explain that although the law does not contemplate the jurisdiction of the National Court for money laundering crimes, it does establish it when there is a connection with other crimes whose investigation is attributed to this court.

In this sense, the resolution points out that, as the Anti-Drug Prosecutor’s Office states in its indictment, in line with the indictment of the investigating judge, María Tardón, the operations carried out by Boye are actions directed by Prado. Bugallo for rrecover money seized at the Barajas airport on February 6, 2017. Some facts for which the Public Prosecutor’s Office accuses the lawyer of a crime of money laundering, committed within a criminal organization, originating from drug trafficking, in conjunction with a continuing crime of falsification of official documents. .

«For all these reasons, once the object of the process has been established in the terms set forth, the connection between the facts for which Gonzalo Boye Tuset is accused and the possible antecedent crime against public health becomes evident, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, and “Competence is attributed to the Criminal Chamber of the National Court,” explains the order, against which an appeal can be filed before the Supreme Court.