The Mossos d'Esquadra have carried out, since 6:00 in the morning this Friday, a macro-device against drug and arms trafficking and money laundering in Badalona and other municipalities in the Barcelona metropolitan area.Carles Ribas
Francisco Comitre, the lawyer and former model prosecuted as the alleged
mastermind
of the biggest real estate scam in Spain, has been sentenced to seven years and nine months in prison for drug trafficking.
The Court of Barcelona considers it proven that he and his partner sold stolen cocaine and marijuana to a patriarch from the Sant Roc neighborhood (Badalona) known as
Tío José
, who has also been convicted.
The magistrates conclude that Comitre, who was arrested on November 29, 2019 during a Mossos d'Esquadra macro-operation, committed the crimes of drug trafficking, money laundering and falsification of an official document, according to the sentence to which he has accessed THE COUNTRY.
In addition to the prison sentence, he imposes the payment of a fine of 96,080 euros.
Although it is not yet firm and can be appealed, this is the first sentence that weighs on Comitre for events that are subsequent and that have nothing to do with those that, in the summer of 2015, made him a popular character.
The lawyer was then arrested as the alleged leader of a plot that defrauded more than a hundred people (mostly elderly) with their apartments.
The Prosecutor's Office requests 20 years and nine months in prison for the lawyer, whom it accuses of leading the network along with two other people: the Barcelona notary Enrique Peña —who is facing a petition of 14 years and ten months— and Artur Segarra, who fled to Thailand during the investigation of the case.
There, he allegedly dismembered a compatriot, a murder for which he is serving a life sentence.
The victims of Comitre,
The sentence condemns the majority of those accused of a drug trafficking plot with its epicenter in the Sant Roc neighborhood, in Badalona.
Comitre's connection to this network came from the hand of Melania Cabello, a 26-year-old girl who helped the organization cut, handle and transport drugs for her sale and with whom she began a sentimental relationship.
In their monitoring, the Mossos observed how, throughout the summer of 2019, Comitre began to accompany Melania by car to leave certain amounts of cocaine in bins agreed upon by the group.
Tío José
expressed his objections to Comitre's participation because he knew of his past as an alleged fraudster of the elderly and, according to the Prosecutor's Office, "he was afraid that he could steal drugs and money from him."
The patriarch's intuition was spot on.
The couple began to sell cocaine and marijuana on their own, which Melania had previously stolen from one of the organization's safe houses in Santa Coloma de Gramenet.
The lawyer and the girl moved the drugs to the house where they lived, in Matadepera, where they also accumulated money.
During the search of the house, the police found almost 4,000 euros in cash, about a kilo of marijuana and a pink notebook where the couple kept track of the sales.
In addition to a crime of drug trafficking, the sentence considers that Comitre committed money laundering because he tried to "mask the criminal origin of the cash benefits" that he obtained from drug trafficking activities.
The Prosecutor's Office initially requested 16 years in prison for Comitre, who was authorized not to attend all the sessions of a very long trial that was held in the City of Justice in Barcelona.
According to the sources consulted, Comitre continues to practice as a lawyer.
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