The police believe that Rafael Amargo and his producer used drug sales to finance a theatrical play

On stage it is Rafael Amargo, but in the courtroom of the Provincial Court of Madrid where he is being tried for drug trafficking it is Jesús Rafael García Hernández. The artist faces nine years in prison along with his partner and producer, Eduardo de Santos, and another alleged collaborator named Miguel Ángel Batista for “persistently” trafficking drugs from his home on Calle de la Palma at least since 2020. Police also believe that the proceeds were used to finance the dancer's artistic career. But on this first day, the protagonist of the show has been Amargo's lawyer, the media Marcos García Montes, who has clashed with the police investigator of the investigation until the magistrate has asked him to calm down. The judge also had to ask Amargo himself to remain silent.

“You have obsessively referred to Luciana as Jesús Rafael's partner, when they have been married since 2019,” García Montes snapped at the police officer to the general astonishment of the room.

The police officer had spoken about Amargo's wife because at the beginning of the investigation she was considered involved, a case that was filed. The agent, without fully understanding what García Montes was referring to, has specified that both terms can be used synonymously.

-No! When they have been registered in the civil registry, they are called spouses, Montes insisted.

"Well, lawyer, calm down," the magistrate asked him in response to such an extravagant start of interrogation.

Beyond technical considerations about how a romantic relationship should be labeled, what is being judged in this process is whether Amargo, De Santos and Batista formed a criminal network for several months to acquire and distribute drugs throughout Madrid, as the Prosecutor's Office maintains according to the police investigation. These investigations point, as the police officer who directed the performances specified this Monday, to the fact that the money obtained from the sale of narcotics served to finance the theatrical show

Yerma

, which the dancer planned to premiere at the end of 2020, when he was arrested. . In fact, the massive press conference that Amargo offered after his arrest was held in the theater, with the artistic team behind. “In one of the conversations they talk about the fact that the borders between communities may be closed and that they had to get supplies,” the researcher specified about a conversation between the

dancer

and the producer.

Amargo and De Santos have arrived at the Provincial Court from prison, where they entered five months ago after repeatedly failing to sign in court that the judge had imposed on them as a precautionary measure for their provisional freedom. The artist explained at the time that complying with this precautionary measure caused him stress. On this first day, Amargo, who had his usual slicked back hairstyle and a striped suit, was smiling and turned around on several occasions to wink at his family. As his lawyer's interrogation progressed, he grew older and made comments under his breath until the magistrate had to admonish him: "Remember that you asked to testify on the last day, if you don't stop speaking today I will have to expel you."

In 2020, police officers from the Centro police station in Madrid deployed a device to detect possible points of sale of narcotics in the midst of a pandemic. This is how they observed suspicious movements in a portal, which was accessed by numerous people who stayed for a few minutes and left. Among these fleeting visitors, the agents recognized several regular dealers at the center, as they explained this Monday in court. In one of the first surveillances, they saw one of the accused, Batista, leave the property, get into a VTC car and make an alleged delivery to a client who paid him 50 euros. Thus began the surveillance and telephone interventions that culminated in the arrest of the plot on December 1, 2020. For police investigators, Batista was Amargo's “man for everything.”

The police officer, who testified first and who monitored the network both in person and by telephone for months, explained that there was no doubt that the person using the tapped phone was Amargo. “He had a very characteristic way of speaking, a recognizable voice, he spoke with the SGAE...”, he explained. The agent has recounted how the producer De Santos joined the illicit business after the artist. García Montes has requested the annulment of the telephone interventions and has assured at the hearing that during the period in which the substance trafficking was investigated, the artist was “affected by drug consumption.”

Amargo's lawyer has also assured that it is not possible that his client trafficked drugs because during the time the investigation lasted he was really in “

Pasapalabra

, on the

Sixth Night

, at the dentist…”. At that moment the artist held up some papers saying “that's here”, before a new disapproving look from the court.

It will be Friday when Amargo will testify, along with the other two accused, and tell his reality. He already advanced it in June 2023, when the trial was suspended due to the change of a lawyer and he declared at the doors of the Provincial Court that there was no truth in the accusations. “ENE A DE A”, he spelled it loud and clear. By then, more than 30 witnesses who may have a contrary opinion will have testified before the court.

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