Spanish court gives 17-year term to drug trafficker Sito Miñanco, frees his lawyer

In a 325-page ruling, Audiencia Nacional convicted José Ramón Prado Bugallo, known as Sito Miñanco, of crimes against public health and of laundering proceeds as part of a criminal group, resulting in a combined 17-year prison term. The court also imposed multiple fines, though the exact amounts were not disclosed. The prosecution had sought a sentence of more than 31 years.

Gonzalo Boye, the attorney for Miñanco and defender of former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, was found not guilty of both money-laundering and document-falsification accusations. The judgment further concluded that there was no unequivocal proof that Prado Bugallo and eight other individuals participated in the creation of private purchase-sale contracts for bills of exchange presented by Boye in a separate money-laundering investigation. Consequently, those individuals were also acquitted of the related charges.