Mayor of Tarragona denies requesting drugs in 2017 call linked to drug trafficking investigation
Rubén Viñuales claims the conversation was related to his professional relationship as a lawyer. He announces legal action against those responsible for the publication.
Viñuales rejects claim that 2017 telephone call involved a request for drugs
The mayor of Tarragona, Rubén Viñuales, has denied requesting drugs from a person featured in a judicial investigation into drug trafficking, according to elpais.com. The controversy centres on a 2017 telephone conversation, when Viñuales was working as a lawyer and was a councillor for Ciudadanos, the transcript of which was published by the online outlet Porta Enrere.
In a statement released on Friday, the mayor frames the call within "the professional relationship I maintained as a lawyer with this person", whose defence and other legal matters he had taken on. Viñuales rejects the suggestion that the content of that conversation could lead to the conclusion that he requested controlled substances.
"The linking of this conversation with a supposed request for controlled substances responds exclusively to an interpretation made at that time by investigating officers, which I absolutely do not share," the mayor states. Viñuales has announced legal action against the author of the information and, "where applicable", against the media outlet that published it.
Viñuales has been mayor of Tarragona since 17 June 2023, following his election after the PSC obtained nine councillors in the municipal elections. Previously he had served as a member of parliament in the Parlament for the PSC from 2021, a party he joined after leaving Ciudadanos at the end of 2020. With that same party, he had stood as a candidate for mayor of Tarragona in 2015 and 2019, and served as a provincial deputy from 2015 until December 2020.
Source: Google News ES — Crime (es)