The Anti-Drug Prosecutor requests almost 10 years in prison for Gonzalo Boye for his alleged involvement in the Sito Miñanco plot

In the center, the lawyer Gonzalo Boye accompanies former president Carles Puigdemont, in a file image.Delmi Álvarez

The Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office has already put on the table the request for sentences for those involved in Operation Myth, the investigation into the return to the old ways of José Ramón Prado Bugallo,

, one of the historic Galician drug traffickers.

The public ministry presented its 179-page indictment on Monday, detailing the details of the alleged plot headed by Miñanco to introduce almost four tons of cocaine into Spain.

The Prosecutor's Office requests more than 30 years in prison for the Galician trafficker, and almost 10 years in prison for Gonzalo Boye, who was his lawyer and who is accused of participating in the alleged "criminal" network created to launder money.

The public ministry moves token after the National Court opened oral proceedings against Miñanco, Boye and fifty other people.

Two weeks ago, the Criminal Chamber confirmed Judge María Tardón's instruction, which attributes to the drug trafficker the leadership of a gang dedicated to the introduction of narcotics, mainly from South America.

"Prado Bugallo had the necessary personal infrastructure: a multitude of individuals who, in many cases, had already accumulated significant criminal experience in the drug trafficking business," writes Antidroga, noting that his subordinates obeyed him in an "almost reverential".

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The voice of Sito Miñanco from prison: "They are lies"

Among the accused are Miñanco's ex-partner, Claudia Viviana Delgado, for whom the Prosecutor's Office is asking for almost nine years in prison;

and her former lieutenant Luis Enrique García Arango, alias

, for whom she is requesting 22 years in prison.

the investigations

In 2018, Operation Myth once again targeted Miñanco, linked to the world of drugs for more than three decades.

Surrounded in the famous Operation Nécora in 1990 —the first major coup against the Galician drug trafficking networks and from which he managed to escape—, he fell for the first time in 1991 in another case.

He then spent seven years in prison, until he was released in 1998. Since then, he has not stopped going in and out of jail.

Precisely, according to the investigations of Operation Myth, in February 2016, the historic drug trafficker had been in semi-liberty for almost a year in Algeciras (Cádiz).

Facing the public, it seemed that he had reinserted himself: he worked in the mornings in a parking company and in the afternoons he went to an NGO that assisted the sick.

But in reality, according to Judge Tardón, he was still fully involved in drug trafficking.

For this reason, he was arrested in 2018. "He is considered the largest drug trafficker in Europe," the National Police stressed after this arrest.

An accusation that he denies.

"They are lies," Miñanco defended himself before the magistrate, as revealed by EL PAÍS.

Boye, for his part, is accused of collaborating with the network to recover money that the police intercepted from a "human mail" from the gang.

According to the Prosecutor's Office, the lawyer was in charge of Miñanco's defense in 2017 and "advised" the plot to "make some contracts for the sale of bills of exchange" with the idea of ​​trying to recover the lost amount: almost 890,000 euros: "Boye presented said sales contracts in the administrative file knowing that they were false and that the sales operations were fictitious, in order to recover the seized money and hide that it came from drug trafficking.”

For this reason, the public ministry attributes a crime of money laundering and another of document falsification.

An accusation denied by the lawyer, known for having other media clients,

Boye has accused the National Court of "persecuting" him for having pro-independence leaders as clients.

Secessionism has also repeatedly shown his support: “Dear Boye, they are going for you, they are going for us.

But we know of your determination and innocence.

It is a great pride and a great privilege to be defended by you ”, wrote Laura Borràs, former president of the Parliament, whom he has also defended.

This Tuesday, after knowing the request of the Prosecutor's Office, Puigdemont has also defended him through a Twitter message: “I learned about this outrage while we were in the European Parliament commission investigating the Pegasus scandal.

It is revenge and cruelty against Boye, the fruit of impotence.

Because he has defeated them.

They would want him locked up, but he won't give up.

All my support and thanks."