“I regret everything I did, it was a mistake,” repeats Ángel, a 45-year-old Spaniard, on the terrace of a bar. He said this after accepting a sentence of two years in prison and a fine of 564 euros this Wednesday Court of Toledo. It is the same punishment that Hélida, a Brazilian and her former romantic partner, agreed to when the Guardia Civil arrested them almost five years ago.
It was June 16, 2019, around one o'clock in the morning. The officers entered the bar they ran in Mohedas de la Jara, a small town with about half a thousand neighbors. There they found cocaine, packaged in two wrappers with a value of 525.62 euros. A plastic bag contained a small stone weighing 13.58 grams and having a richness of 28.69 percent. She hid in the kitchen and Hélida threw her out the window when she saw them.
But it wasn't the only thing. A plastic wrapper containing a three-gram bar of cocaine and a seven-gram piece of hashish, worth 38.70 euros, was also found on the street.
Nearly five years later, Ángel and Hélida were tried in Toledo court on Wednesday. The Public Prosecution Service initially demanded seven years' imprisonment and a fine of 1,500 euros each for a crime against public health with substances that cause serious damage to health.
However, prosecutor Ángel Demetrio de la Cruz and the two lawyers, Alberto J. Pérez and Enrique Rodríguez, entered the room with an agreement under their arms. Hélida and Ángel would admit the facts in exchange for a prison sentence of two years and a fine of 564 euros each. And so it happened: they admitted the prosecutor's story and accepted the verdict, after the president of the court officially informed them that it would be applied to them. three mitigating factors: drug addiction, confession (recognition of the facts) and small amount of the drug.
– Are you satisfied with the punishment they ask for?
-Yes.
Later in a bar, Ángel tells ABC that as a result of the Civil Guard arrest, he and Hélida no longer lived together, he gave up drugs (he was also a user) and continued his job as a locksmith. All this time, however, it has been an 'ordeal' in Mohedas, where he still lives. “People in town always pointed it out to me,” he says.
«It was a mistake at a time of crisis, when there was no money and the bar was doing poorly. He was a drug addict, they offered to sell him and he accepted. Always in very small quantities, as the trial has shown,” says his lawyer, who, like Hélida's lawyer, will request a suspension of the sentence. “I have always shown my face,” Ángel intervenes, “and I have committed myself to my life and dedicated to my work. “That was an error left.”