September 8th was coming to an end when two cars were lined up in parallel near the Plaza de Castilla in Madrid. On one side a VTC, on the other a Madrid Metropolitan Police patrol car. One of the agents notices the vehicle waiting for the light to turn green. He sees that he has a passenger, but the navigator screen appears offline. It seems strange to him because he knows that when the VTCs are operational, they must activate the device. They decide to stop him to check if there is anything hidden in the car. They roll down the window and tell the driver to park the vehicle next to the sidewalk, but at that moment the passenger intervenes with an unexpected answer: “Arturo? You are Arturo from Leganitos! Are you hesitating me? Come on, start. Bye!” As soon as the traffic light turns green, the car drives off.
The patrol reacted quickly and drove after them in their police vehicle. A short chase of just 10 minutes began that ended on Asturias Avenue. They didn’t get far. With the VTC already stopped, the agents talk to the driver and ask him why he pulled over while asking him to stop the car and the driver tried to give some vague explanations. At the same time, the passenger, believed to be Arturo, made a strange movement in the back, as if he was squatting down. “Both out of the car,” the police say.
At this point, the passenger and driver are already very nervous. Agents verified that her eyesight had not failed her and that the backseat occupant had placed something under the driver’s seat. It is a black bag with a zipper. When they opened it, the police discovered two packages that looked familiar. One weighs 480 grams, the other 485. The passenger recognizes that it is heroin. In the supposed customer’s bag there is also a receipt from a pharmacy scale with the number of individual packs. Located in the Bernabéu district, this establishment has a scale at the entrance, outside the pharmacy.
The driver then admits that he didn’t actually have any work hours that evening, but that the occupant of the vehicle was a friend and had offered to do him a favor. As he spoke, the other man made blatant gestures to get him to stop telling the agents. However, they did not believe the version that the driver did not know anything, but it became clear to them that he was aware of the drug delivery and therefore they pretended that he was a customer. The two were eventually arrested and taken to a national police station.
Those arrested are two citizens of Guinea-Bissau, aged 43 and 37, the second of whom has a criminal record for crimes against public health (drug trafficking). Neither she nor the third passenger of the night, the kilo of heroin, ever reached their destination. The escape tactic based on Arturo didn’t work.
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