The 'coca driver', sentenced to four years and nine months in prison for spending the money from the Board's ERE on drugs

Silvia Moreno Seville

Seville

Updated Tuesday, February 20, 2024-15:39

Juan Francisco Trujillo

, better known as the

coke driver

in the ERE case, was sentenced this Tuesday to four years and nine months in prison for diverting part of the 1.3 million euros in aid granted to him by the Junta de Andalusia to the purchase of drugs, in addition to drinks in "restaurants and leisure establishments."

The Court of Seville has condemned the person who was the driver of the former general director of Labor and Social Security of the Junta de Andalucía Francisco Javier Guerrero - now deceased - for crimes of prevarication, embezzlement of public funds and falsification of an official document, in a separate piece of the ERE case for the aid granted by the Andalusian Government, during the PSOE stage, to three commercial companies of which he was a partner and administrator and for the "fraudulent" underwriting of insurance policies in favor of his own mother.

In a ruling notified this Tuesday, which has been reported by the Press Office of the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia (TSJA), the First Section court considers it proven that the accused "allocated part of the funds received from the subsidies to the payment of particular needs" of his boss Guerrero, such as "drinks in restaurants and leisure establishments, and supply of narcotics (cocaine)."

The

coke driver

already intoned the

mea culpa

during the trial on January 8, when he stated: "I keep saying that

I am guilty

." The prosecutor requested 14 years in prison for him.

But the sentence imposed is lower because the court has determined that in this case there is a "very qualified mitigation of undue delays", due to the time that has elapsed since the events occurred, and the "analogical mitigation of confession", since he admitted his guilt. From the beginning. In addition, Trujillo has been acquitted of the crime of influence peddling for which he was also tried.

The court has had no "doubt" about "the reality of the attack on the objective and impartial exercise of the public function carried out by Francisco Javier Guerrero", the "special personal relationship" that he maintained with his driver and the "interest" in obtaining an "economic benefit" from the decisions" of the latter. However, it is not possible to "successfully define" a situation of "influence" of the accused over Guerrero that "admits his involvement" in this crime, the ruling specifies.

"There was no moral pressure or influence from Juan Francisco Trujillo on Guerrero that could have been supported by the special relationship of trust that both maintained" due to the driver's duties carried out by the convicted man, the magistrates argue.

In addition to the

coke driver

, the First Section has convicted a second defendant, identified as Isidoro RE, as a necessary cooperator in a crime of prevarication in conjunction with another of embezzlement. He also applies the mitigating circumstance of undue delay. His sentence is two years of special disqualification from employment or public office for prevarication, as well as one year and four months in prison and three years of absolute disqualification for embezzlement.

The court also condemns the former director of the Vitalia Antonio José AM group as a necessary collaborator of a crime of falsification of an official document, prevarication and embezzlement, with the mitigating circumstance of undue delays. He imposes four months in prison and the payment of a fine of 720 euros for the crime of falsehood; two years of special disqualification from employment or public office for prevarication, and one year in prison and two years of absolute disqualification for embezzlement.

Confession before Alaya

Juan Francisco Trujillo told Judge Alaya in March 2012 that, together with his then boss Guerrero, they consumed cocaine at any time of the day and that he bought it every three or four days.

Per day

, they consumed about

five grams of cocaine

. They paid it with money from the

ERE

reptile fund that Guerrero managed.

According to the former driver's testimony, Guerrero not only benefited from drug consumption but also

received between 60,000 and 80,000 euros in cash

from his driver, paintings, a piano, antiques, and clothing worth 2,000 euros. and 1,000 euros more in mobile phone consumption. Many of these gifts would have been taken to his house in El Pedroso by the former driver himself. Guerrero, who died in October 2020, always denied the accusations made by his former driver.

Guerrero was the man who arranged the departure of the ERE at will, which he himself called the "reptile fund." He held the general directorate of Labor for almost a decade, between 1999 and 2008, with three different advisors, always with Manuel Chaves as president of the Andalusian Government.