A man in Tenerife is on trial for drugs and weapons charges: claims he bought the revolvers as dummies.
A man in Tenerife is on trial, accused of possessing weapons and drugs seized during an investigation into a series of robberies.
At a trial on Tenerife on Wednesday, a man accused of possessing weapons said he bought them at a market in the town of Guaza, thinking they were dummies. He allegedly found the cartridges, 95 of them, at the bottom of a bag.
This trial is just part of a larger case involving a series of thefts in northern Tenerife, involving five people. Here, special attention is focused on cocaine (about 300 grams worth €22,000) and illegal weapons.
Police arrested the man on April 10, 2024, at a house in southern Tenerife, and he has been in custody ever since.
Prosecutors want to imprison him for 3 years for drug offenses and one and a half years for weapons offenses. The defense lawyer is asking for him to be acquitted on the drug charges, and agrees to a one-year prison sentence for the weapons charges.
Police officers who conducted the search say they found a package of cocaine in a shirt in the yard. The DNA on the shirt matches the defendant's DNA by 99.9%.
Law enforcement officials believe that the package was thrown away when they heard about the search, and that the pistols were lying on a closet.
Experts confirmed that these are two German revolvers, one of which has been modified. It is unknown when they were last used.
The rest of the cocaine was found in the house. The man says it is for his own use, as he has been a drug addict since 2015 and has been treated repeatedly.
He denies selling drugs and says he used cocaine to work as a security guard at a club at night. He claims the shirt with his DNA ended up in the yard because it is a house occupied by squatters, and people are constantly coming and going.
The man claims that he lives with his girlfriend in another house in southern Tenerife, but stayed here that night because he had "plans" with another woman who was with him during the search.
Police officers and National Guardsmen who participated in the search noted that the detainee cooperated with the investigation from the very beginning.
The five defendants in the thefts in the north operated from the end of 2022 to April 2024, when they were detained. Although it was initially suspected that this was a criminal organization, this version was rejected.
The operation began after the Guard received information that they were stealing jewelry, antique coins, electronics and money by breaking locks.
Sometimes they attacked the owners, sometimes they failed, and sometimes they stole up to €8,000. In total, they committed 21 crimes.
The main trial is expected to take place in the coming months. Approximately 60 witnesses are scheduled to be questioned.