This defense attorney Gerson Vidal Rodríguez pointed out that the stolen bags did not contain drugs but a harmless substance placed as bait. After the narcotic material was kept by those responsible for the Police Department and then examined by the Health Directorate, the defense argued that this did not affect the protected legal right and that the sanction process could continue.
A popular jury found the police guilty of two illegal acts recorded with a camera installed in an Alcoy Police Station office, where records of complaints about seized drugs under the Citizen Security Act are kept. It was not proven that the defendant had stolen four additional envelopes containing drugs.
The declared facts, proven according to the verdict, occurred in September 2020. The decision noted that the 40-year-old defendant was placed in custody at the Alcoy outpost, and on September 24 a non-narcotic substance was confiscated, allegedly placed as bait, together with the intervention reports in separate bags and envelopes. The defendant repeated the action the following day and seized the trap placed next to the intervention report for the purpose of intervention. The facts were clarified: what happened at the police station?
In both cases, the defendant returned to the office but did not return the item that had been withdrawn earlier—though it was different.
Seized items, which had been taken by police officers to be replaced with harmless bait, were examined by Health in Alicante and were deemed contraband cocaine in all instances.
unproven facts
As stated in the court decision, there was no evidence of prior drug thefts of four more envelopes, as recorded during police intervention. There is also no proven evidence that the accused was seriously affected by or used drugs or that their faculties were altered during the events.
The judge noted, on legal grounds, that the defense contended the proven facts by the public jury could constitute an impossible crime transformed by the drug substance in the intervention report, which could be seen as an attempt to commit a secondary crime. However, the magistrate concluded that this was not an impossible crime because there were records of packages presumed to be narcotic substances, stored at the Alcoy National Police Station. It is irrelevant that the drugs were stolen since the items were not analyzed; the analysis did not change the fact that the packaging was removed, according to the official statements.
The court indicated that the failure of the police officer to achieve the intended aim was not due to the defendant’s will but to the fact that the original packages that were later found to contain cocaine were removed by other officers to prevent their abduction.
Although the magistrate did not classify this as an impossible crime, he considered it a crime not to have the originals of the documents submitted. The attempted infidelity crime under document supervision also looms in this case. The text states that the protected legal right, namely the documents, may fulfill the function recognized by the legal system without the need for an effective violation committed intentionally and by proper means; in this case, the documents are viewed as serious administrative violations with sanctions under the law .