Jury finds Manuel Alonso guilty in the murder of Colombians in Alhaurín de la Torre
A jury has convicted Manuel Alonso for the murder of his ex-partner Lucía Garrido and his links to drug trafficking in Málaga, 17 years later.
The plot of Finca Los Naranjos: two decades of crimes, impunity and police corruption in Málaga
According to Ideal, a jury has found Manuel Alonso Herrero, the main suspect in a network of crimes that began to unfold nearly two decades ago at the Finca de los Naranjos, in Alhaurín de la Torre (Málaga), "partially" guilty. The conviction designates him as a necessary accomplice in the murder of his ex-partner Lucía Garrido and as responsible for firing on a gang that attempted to rob him of drugs, in addition to accumulating proven links with drug trafficking. The case has already resulted in two convictions—one still pending review by the Supreme Court—and a trail of bodies that includes murdered protected witnesses and a Civil Guard officer who took his own life.
The raid of April 2009
Edward Andrés Gómez, aged 25, and Derian José Morales, aged 36, arrived at the property on the night of 25 April 2009 convinced that the robbery would go smoothly. They had been promised kilos of hashish and cocaine hidden beneath lion and tiger cages, and the tip-off, it was said, came from Civil Guard officers. Around 15 individuals distributed in three groups from Madrid, Alicante and Fuengirola converged on Alhaurín de la Torre for the raid.
Edward was the first to jump over the wall. Immediately upon landing on the other side, he was shot by Manuel Alonso. "I've been hit!", he shouted. These are the last words one of the raiders—now a protected witness—remembers from his companion, and who testified at the trial held 17 years later. "In my opinion he was waiting for us because as soon as he landed the first impact was heard, very loud," he told the court.
That night the property's alarm was disconnected, the mastiffs were locked up and there were two firearms distributed around the house: one in the lounge, outside the gun safe, and another next to the bed, with numerous cartridges in the bedside table drawer. Manuel Alonso needed just two shotgun blasts to kill the two Colombians, who were settled with their families in the Spanish capital. He did not receive a single impact, despite the raiders firing five shots with a revolver and three with a pistol. After the incident, he ran to alert a neighbour situated just a few metres away.
The body of Lucía in the swimming pool
Just nine days after the double homicide, the court provisionally filed the proceedings opened for another murder that had occurred at the same location a year earlier: that of Lucía Garrido. On 30 April 2008, Lucía's body had been found floating in the property's swimming pool, bearing blows and a cut to the jugular.
Lucía had separated from Manuel Alonso two years earlier and was living at the property with her daughter under the protection of a court order. However, her ex-husband visited daily to maintain the business of breeding pets and custody of wild species seized by the Civil Guard's Nature Protection Service (Seprona). Lucía had confided in a friend about Alonso's alleged "small-time dealings" related to illicit animal trafficking. That same friend later testified before a judge that she had seen what "appeared to be bales" of drugs from the window of one of the outbuildings.
Lucía had reported Manuel Alonso on several occasions for mistreatment. She compiled compromising documentation in a folder that she herself described as her "life insurance" and handed it to her lawyer. After the murder, the solicitor left Málaga. Her sister Rosa, however, never stopped fighting. Her efforts together with former Civil Guard officer Ignacio Carrasco—who left the force after reporting alleged irregularities—were decisive in reopening the case in April 2012 and in the Civil Guard's Internal Affairs Service (SAI) becoming part of the investigation in 2015.
The DNA that led to the arrest of the actual perpetrator
In 2016, eight years after Lucía's murder, Forensics specialists found a DNA sample on the key that opened the door to Finca Los Naranjos. This genetic profile led to the arrest of the actual perpetrator of the homicide, Ángel Vaello, known as 'Rana'. At that time, Manuel Alonso had been under investigation for years as a possible instigator. However, months later, the judge ruled that there was no evidence linking him to the case and dismissed his indictment. A year later, at the order of the Provincial Court, Lucía's ex-husband appeared again as an accused in the murder.
Filed away time and again
The case of the two Colombians suffered successive dismissals. The first came in December 2009, eight months after the events, when the judge and prosecutor concluded that Manuel Alonso had acted in self-defence. The case took a turn in 2014, when complaints from former Civil Guard officer Carrasco prompted a new Internal Affairs investigation that for the first time connected the murder of Lucía with that of the two Colombians. Despite this, the case file was closed again in September 2016 and again in September 2019.
It was not until 2020 that the Provincial Court intervened firmly. In an order, the court noted that "it is not at all usual for an exemption from criminal responsibility such as self-defence to be accepted at this stage of the proceedings" and demanded that a jury decide on Alonso's culpability in the deaths of Edward and Derian.
Previous conviction for drug trafficking
Amidst so many judicial setbacks, Manuel Alonso had been arrested and convicted alongside the former head of the Organised Crime Unit for offences related to drug trafficking. That conviction, still pending review by the Supreme Court, is now added to the jury's verdict that places him at the centre of a network of crimes that for nearly two decades found shelter in missing evidence, repeated filings and shadows over police conduct.
Source: Ideal