The Prosecutor’s Office has presented its conclusions in the case against the owner of the Rúa Mar fishing boat, for which it requests 144 years in prison for the crimes of belonging to a criminal organization, against public health, homicide, fraud, against the right of workers and for money laundering. The ship sank in January 2020, leaving six dead, when it was allegedly transporting a drug cache.
The facts recounted by the Prosecutor’s Office explain that the owner of the Rúa Mar was already under police surveillance after a previous shipment had been intercepted, as well as that the first idea was to use another ship he owned for that trip, although it was finally made in the Rúa Sea.
Likewise, it points out how the shipowner’s uncle, who was in charge of the trip as skipper, calls to report that they had a breakdown, as well as later the shipowner’s partner says: “Let them throw it away”. The next signal that it already has from Rúa Mar is from Salvamento Marítimo to inform them that the beacon had jumped, which means that “the beacon positioned on the mast has touched water.”
In addition, the Prosecutor’s Office requests in its brief 19 years in prison for the shipowner’s sentimental partner; 13 years for two defendants allegedly in charge of coordinating the stash; and six years for two other drug-related defendants.
It should be remembered that more than a hundred people by sea and air, eight Maritime Rescue boats, Civil Guard patrol boats, a Red Cross boat, fishing boats and a Navy ship participated in the search for the Rúa Mar fishing boat disappeared in the Strait, in addition to maritime rescue and Civil Guard air units.
The ship capsized at dawn on January 23, 2020 with six crew members inside, without the ship or four of them having appeared so far. Three days later the sea ejected part of the remains of the Rúa Mar very far from the point where the ship had supposedly sunk, and later the current made two of the bodies belonging to the crew appear, on January 27 and 28. The ship and four of its crew members were left at sea.
In addition, on January 26, 2020 at around 8:45 p.m., the Maritime Service of the Civil Guard delivered two bundles of about 25 kilograms of hashish each floating in the sea, which, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, were transporting the sunken ship.
