In Alicante, a court has handed down sentences this Tuesday to two defendants, each receiving three years and six months in prison for a pistol-armed hotel robbery in Benidorm and for trafficking drugs in the tourist city.
The defendants faced an initial proposal from the prosecution of nine years in prison. However, at the start of today’s trial, a conformity agreement was reached between the Public Prosecutor and the defense lawyers, Alejandro Dapena Alted and José de Jesús Fonseca Rodríguez. The defendants pleaded guilty, and the prosecutor requested for each a total of two years and 45 days of imprisonment for a crime of robbery with violence and intimidation, in conjunction with two crimes of illegal detention, plus a further 18 months for a drug-related offense.
The presiding judge of the Second Section delivered the sentence “in voce,” applying to the defendants the mitigating factors of undue delays and damages repair, since they compensated the hotel with the 300 euros they had stolen.
Conversely, the court added the aggravating factor of disguising themselves with motorcyclist helmets during the robbery. In addition to the prison terms, which may be suspended by defense, the defendants are also required to pay fines of 1,336 euros each.
Midnight Robbery
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The acts acknowledged by the defendants during the trial occurred shortly before two in the early hours of October 2, 2018, at a hotel on Mirador Street in Benidorm. The defendants, concealing their faces with full motorcycle helmets, entered the hotel and approached the reception. They then pointed a firearm at the security guard to intimidate him and moved behind the desk to steal money from the safe.
[…] The assailants tied up the guard and the receptionist in an office, locking them in before fleeing with a loot of 300 euros. The victims raised the alarm, and police freed them a few minutes later.
The investigation into this robbery also revealed that the defendants were involved in drug trafficking in Benidorm and La Vila Joiosa. Police searches conducted in April 2019 recovered small quantities of MDMA, cocaine, and cannabis.