Málaga businessman, Benjamín de la Mata, has been telling Diario Sur about his nightmare spending 17 days in prison in Algeciras for a crime he did not commit.

A Málaga businessman, Benjamín de la Mata, has been telling Diario Sur about his nightmare spending 17 days in prison in Algeciras for a crime he did not commit.

Police found eight kilos of drugs hidden in his Seat Córdoba car, which his brother had purchased second hand ten years ago from a car rental company, and which Benjamín was given as a gift from his brother five or six years ago.

‘I’ve been locked up with killers and rapists’, he said, but added that he did make two friends there who saved him.

Benjamin had travelled to Ceuta on business and on his return the drugs were finally found in the structure of the car, initially by a drug sniffing dog. Benjamin says he thought the dog was smelling food, but when they started to dismantle the vehicle and started finding packets, his first thought was it was a joke. 

He thought that perhaps someone had put the drugs there while he was in Ceuta, and knew it was serious when he was handcuffed to the steering wheel.

He told the judge in Algeciras, ’after three days sleeping on a filthy mattress and unwashed’ that he was working, has a family and mortgage and knew nothing about drugs. The judge ignored that he spent 17 days in jail until last Monday when he was in court again.

A release order was finally given as what was found in the car could not be considered drugs, as it was so old that it had lost all its active ingredients. :Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder.