When you talk to Víctor – his fictitious name – his pathological optimism draws powerful attention.. This middle-aged Post Office worker with an impeccable haircut has a markedly extroverted character and tells each story with great passion.. No one could imagine the ordeal he has gone through over the last seven years.. Let's recap: they opened his car twice to put drugs inside, he received several beatings, he ended up in the hospital because some thugs broke his ankles with hammer blows, they hid a gun in the trunk and he was even detained and unjustly prosecuted for drug trafficking. These were some of the consequences of being immersed in an alleged criminal and police corruption plot just for falling in love with a woman.. The ex-wife of an alleged drug trafficker who was a confidant of a commissioner. Both have already been arrested. And Victor begins to recover his life. The most important thing: she will be able to see her daughter again after two years without doing so due to the precautionary measures imposed after her arrest for drug trafficking and the fear that something would happen to the little girl..
Receive El Confidencial in a cafeteria in the center of Malaga. It has been difficult for him to take the step and trust, but he is willing to recount all the hardships. “Will you have enough pages?” he asks, pointing to the notebook.
“Lets start by the beginning”. He explains that in September 2015 he met María – fictitious name – through a chat. They both liked each other and the first in-person dates ended up turning into a relationship. “Three months later, we were living together,” he says.
Víctor got to know his girlfriend's circle of friends, as well as her family. The two children of his girlfriend and her ex-husband: Salomón KC, a businessman whom the woman had divorced in 2013. “Someone told me then that she had had problems with one of María's boyfriends,” but he did not give it too much importance.
The problems began when the couple decided to move to one of the properties that had belonged to the extinct marriage and for which they were litigating.. “It was a penthouse” located in Fuengirola, he points out, “and we moved in in January or February 2016”. A Belgian citizen, who had been a tenant of the apartment, filed a trespass complaint that came to nothing.. Subsequently, a family car was stolen from the garage, which days later was found “with no signs that it had been broken into.”. That was the second. Victor and María began to be restless, but they never imagined what was going to happen on October 31 of that year..
1- Drugs in the car
“That day we went to his brother's house, in the Cerro del Águila urbanization, in Mijas, to get some furniture because the attic was empty and it had to be furnished little by little”. When they were returning, Víctor, who was behind the wheel, realized that they had a car stuck to them.. He was surprised, in addition to the short distance, that “it was night and the lights were off.”. He continued driving, but when he reached the roundabout at the entrance to Fuengirola, “he pulled into parallel and showed me a license plate through the window.”. A few meters away, they came across a police vehicle crossed on the road..
They stopped the march and the plainclothes officers asked them to get out and open the trunk.. “One of them looked directly to the left and took out what looked like a hashish plate,” recalls Víctor, who adds that one of the police officers extended it to him so he could take it.. “He told me: 'I'm giving you a chance to say what it is.'. But I refused to take it.”.
The couple was arrested and taken to the Fuengirola police station.. “I spent three days in the dungeon. Then I found myself involved in a judicial process. For a year I went every 15 days to sign in court.”. But it was finally proven that this drug “was not ours and that someone had planted it”.
At that time, Victor and María had more than suspicions that Solomon was behind what happened. And not only because he had previously told his ex-wife to keep that car, to which he had keys, but because they also began to receive intimidating messages..
2- “Severed head”
On November 22, 2016, the woman reported that an individual with an Eastern European accent told her verbatim: “You didn't leave the apartment. You will end up in jail or with your head cut off.”. She linked this threat to the legal dispute she had with her ex-husband over the attic and thus reflected this suspicion in her statement..
3- Group aggression
On April 12, 2017, Víctor had to be admitted to the ICU at the Costa del Sol hospital in Marbella after suffering a brutal attack when he was going to enter the portal in the company of María. “It was seven thirty or eight in the afternoon and I saw three individuals. They caught my attention because, at that time, they were wearing sunglasses. When I opened the door, I felt a push on my back.. And immediately two of them began to hit me with extendable batons. The third grabbed María and then hit me in the neck before falling unconscious on the ground.”. Lying on the floor, he kicked him in the head, breaking his cheekbone..
His partner began to scream and ask for help, which caused the attackers to flee.. Before the agents arrived, a boy approached María and told her that he had recorded everything. But those images were not attached to the investigation.
“That day I had a visit with my daughter. Thank God I changed it,” says the victim, who began to doubt the work of the investigators at the Fuengirola police station when she perceived an indifference towards her case that led her to complain to higher authorities.. The Internal Affairs Unit would end up substantiating these suspicions when alleged police corruption surfaced that supposedly benefited Salomón KC.
4- Alibi messages
“Hello, friend, this time I escaped you. No hurry. We will wait for you. And don't forget you. You owe us 25,000 euros for the drugs. Used for!” (Sic). This is the textual content of the message that Víctor received on August 29, 2017 on his mobile phone.
Sensing that it was a strategy to link him to some narcotics matter, and taking into account the precedents he had experienced, he decided to file a complaint.. In it he also reflected that in November of the previous year, and through SMS sent from two different numbers, “they threatened to kill him if he did not pay for a drug.”.
5- Broken locks
On different dates – October 16 and 25, 2017 – María reported to the Fuengirola police station that they had changed the lock on the front door and that they had accessed the interior of her house.. And she related these actions to the disputes she had with her ex-husband..
He made the same warning when on two different days – March 6 and 12, 2018 – he observed that the lock and frame of one of the doors of his car had been damaged.. “They did not take anything from inside,” was reflected in the police report.
6- Weapon and pills
If what he had suffered up to that moment was not serious enough, what happened on July 16, 2018 definitely opened his eyes and he was aware of the risk that loomed over him.. “That day, María, my daughter and I, traveled to Granada to spend the weekend. When we arrived, and I parked the car, I went to take the suitcases out of the trunk. Then I noticed that one of the rear lights was moving.. I went to put it correctly and noticed that there was something inside. “I put my hand in and pulled out a gun.”.
Víctor remembers that he went to a police station and they explained to him that it was not real, that it was an airsoft model. But they decided to return to Malaga because they were scared.
As the couple had doubts about the alleged connivance of certain agents from the Fuengirola police station with Salomón, whom they suspected of being behind this new event, they decided to go to the North Police Station in the capital of Malaga because there was an agent there who they had told what they had been suffering during the previous two years. Víctor made a “voluntary surrender report” of the weapon and together with María headed to Fuengirola.
He remembers that he parked near the Civil Guard barracks and that they began to remove the belongings from the vehicle. At that moment, “in the back seat behind the passenger seat, I see a hidden bag with what looked like some small balls.”. The first thing I thought was that it was ammunition from the gun we found. But when I picked it up, I realized they were pills.”.
They called the police officer from the North Police Station again, and he moved quickly with his colleagues.. “They came with guide dogs and the Scientific Police were looking for footprints,” said Víctor, who is convinced that they wanted to “set a trap for us again.”.
7- Threats
Víctor reported on September 21, 2018 that he was supposedly “rebuked” by Salomón when he was showing the attic where he lived with María. He claimed that he was threatened.
8- Parked car
On October 7, 2019, he left his car, locked and parked correctly, in the community parking lot.. But he was later informed that it had been removed by the municipal tow truck because it was parked incorrectly on public roads.. With the certainty that someone had moved him without his consent, in the complaint he expressed the fear “that something could have been put in him.”.
10- False complaint
On July 30, 2020, María files a complaint against her ex-husband for false reporting.
11- “I have to get paid”
Víctor did not stop receiving disturbing messages and linked these messages with an attempt to build a kind of motive for the aggressions and attacks they suffered, since they were more constant when an episode of violence occurred..
This was expressed to the National Police after October 18, 2020, he reported receiving the following text: “Ola amici. I'm in Fuengiola. I have to charge the money. Successes” (Sic). And he explained that he had evidence that he had been sent by Francisco NC, a guy whom investigators place within the criminal network supposedly led by Salomón..
12- Aggression with hammer blows
The most serious event, which was detailed by El Confidencial based on police reports, occurred on May 12, 2021 and ended with Víctor in the hospital after being attacked with hammer blows by three thugs..
This is the first-person account of what happened: “María was driving and I was in the passenger seat. We were going to leave my daughter with my ex after spending the day together. A girl with a cap and mask approached and asked me the time. When I went to answer him, he sprayed me in the face. The first thing I thought was that it was streamer that children play with.” But he immediately realized that it was pepper spray.
“I run after her, but at the end of the street three guys come out. Two of them were carrying hammers. And I recognize one of them from a previous attack. I try to flee. They chase me, and when I have gone about 50 meters, one of them “They hit me with a hammer on the back and I fell to the ground.”.
“I ask for help, but another, large one, sticks his knee into my chest and tries to hit me in the head with a hammer.”. He doesn't get it because I hold his arm. The other two, meanwhile, immobilize my legs and break both my ankles with blows.. “The other one, who had a signet ring on one of his hands, punches me in the face.”.
“They flee when people in nearby buildings start yelling at them.. I don't know how I could, if it was because of the adrenaline, but with both ankles broken, I tried to run after them. “Then an ambulance arrived and took me to the hospital.”.
Víctor says that he was on sick leave for a year and that he became afraid of the different police forces because his partner's ex-husband had slipped on several occasions that he had contact with “senior officials” – as reflected in the case reports -. This fear was based, in part, on the fact that the numerous complaints that both he and María had filed led nowhere.. They did not advance and, even less so, did they lead to arrests.
When the agents of Investigation Group II of the Western Police Station of Malaga went to his house to talk to him, “I didn't open the door and knocked to find out if it was true that they had sent investigators,” says the victim, who confesses that He did not trust any police officer and began to regain faith in the authorities when he realized that they were willing to listen to him and go as far as necessary..
What happened next was reported yesterday by this newspaper. Group 10 of the Internal Affairs Unit (UAI) joined the case due to suspicions that a corrupt police network provided confidential information to Salomón KC, who under his businessman facade allegedly led a criminal organization dedicated to drug trafficking and other crimes.. Data that he allegedly also obtained about Víctor and his ex and with which he allegedly made their lives impossible, as the investigation concludes..
On March 6, he was arrested along with the then commissioner of Fuengirola, José María Tocornal, who is accused of interference in different cases to supposedly protect someone who was also his confidant, say those responsible for the investigation, who also point to the participation from other agents from the Fuengirola police station. Two weeks ago, without going any further, the last arrest that has emerged occurred: a sub-inspector.
Victor explains that these arrests have brought some peace to his life, but he does not forget the past suffering. “For four months I had nightmares. I dreamed that they entered the house. But the worst thing is that I haven't seen my daughter in two years.. With everything that has happened to me, the mother requested precautionary measures, which I understand because I would have done the same; but I haven't even been able to talk to her on the phone in the last few months.
His great joy is that this situation is going to change. Justice has determined that the visitation regime must be resumed. He can't hide his happiness. Gone is that carousel of attacks, arrests and threats. Start to see the light again.