MADRID: The Supreme Court has ruled that there is insufficient evidence to continue holding five drug smugglers in La Manga drug smugglers released by Spanish Supreme Courtprison after they were arrested in Elche and El Campello (both in the province of Alicante) following a Policía Nacional action in La Manga del Mar Menor in October 2010.
Almost five years ago the police caught two members of the group preparing to unload their cargo of over three tons of hashish from a sailing boat in La Manga. One of them has since died, but the evidence of the other led to the arrests of the five other members of the cartel in the days following the original swoop. Each of them was sentenced to between four and a half and six and a half years behind bars as a result of their involvement in the trafficking.
However, doubts were subsequently raised over the validity of the evidence presented in court, and the Supreme Court has now ruled that the tapping of incriminating phone conversations was not authorized, and that the remaining evidence is insufficient to justify holding the convicted men in jail any longer.
Only the one remaining man who was caught on the boat itself will serve the rest of his four-and-a-half-year sentence, and his fine of 4,290,000 euros also remains in place.
