The Colonel Arms Collector They Wanted to Pretend to be a Trafficker

• Courts Judge Lieutenant Colonel for Selling Military Equipment to be Disposed of

He regrets that he has lost the illusion of his life due to a decade of procedure, and that is that FHC, colonel of the Army, is passionate about weapons. To such an extent that he is "one of the greatest arms experts in the country," according to his lawyer Jose María Fuster-Fabra. But that hobby was also what put him at the center of a judicial investigation for arms trafficking, from which he has been acquitted, according to the judgment of the Barcelona Court, almost 10 years after he was arrested by the Civil Guard.

Based on an anonymous complaint received by Army officers, a military court ordered to investigate the colonel, now in the reserve, when he was in charge of the detachment of the Sant Boi de Llobregat barracks. After months of wiretapping, the officers arrested him in November 2010, when he was a lieutenant colonel, accused of arms trafficking, although later they also allegedly accused him of staying and selling military equipment, such as clothing or accessories, that belonged to the Army and had to drop out. In the police operation, the agents confiscated a hundred weapons, only a part of those that the colonel had in his residences and in a place, and that most of them were centenarians or in disuse, besides being unused and having the documentation in order. as they served to collect only.

After 9 years of proceedings, in which the case passed in an unusual way from the military jurisdiction, which rejected arms trafficking, to the civilian and numerous expert opinions were made on the material intervened, the case came to trial a few months ago. to the Barcelona Court for crimes against the Treasury in the military field and illicit possession of weapons for which the Prosecutor's Office asked him for 35 months in prison, although the State Attorney claimed several years in prison.

Of all the weapons intervened, the accusations disputed the provenance of three pistols found in the defendant's office at the Sant Boi headquarters during the search, since they considered that "none of them were covered by the weapons license." The soldier defended himself, providing in the case the testimony that the three pistols had been handed over to him by his colleagues so that they could be destroyed since he had the powers to do so. However, the Barcelona Court declared void the telephone interventions made by the officers to the military, so the accused was acquitted of all crimes related to the sale and purchase of weapons.

The court analyzed only the crimes related to allegedly stealing material belonging to the Army that was going to be destroyed and then selling it. Specifically, t-shirts, backpacks, women's underwear, camisoles, shooting glasses, compasses, ear protectors, helmets, snow shovels, field boots, uniforms, jackets, sleeping bags, were intervened in the barracks during the operation, work overalls, field caps, socks, rain ponchos, scarves, nameplates, binoculars, raincoats or briefcases, among others, that he was old. The documentation provided to the procedure showed that nothing was missing from the military database, all the material stored in the barracks was waiting to be destroyed, although there were no budget items for it.

The military explained that due to his passion for collecting, he had made a sale of arms or material, but never from his job in the Army, but from the fairs he attended or after his acquisition online. In addition, several witnesses explained during the trial that the material in the barracks was properly controlled by the military authorities, and others acknowledged that they bought objects, such as a tent or earth bags, from the colonel, although it has not been demonstrated that he took it out of the barracks.

The court concludes that the defendant did not sell material from the unit in the years he was in charge and defiles investigators who did not "take an inventory of stocks based on existing records and records" of this material before continuing to charge of this appropriation to the command of the Army.

After learning of the acquittal, the lawyer José María Fuster-Fabra stated that it was one of "the strangest and most incomprehensible cases in which I have participated professionally" as well as lamenting the "unheard-of involvement of an Army colonel who has performed great services in Spain »Such as reports on weapons seized in international operations.

Now the colonel in the reserve is trying to rebuild his passion for collecting, which involves restoring, cataloging and admiring the military equipment he has, although he regrets the personal consequences of 10 years of procedure.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• Spain
• Civil Guard
• Catalonia

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