This article was originally published in May 2009 and is visible now so that readers can look at what was happening on the Costa Tropical back then.
At a court in Granada, the killer of Daniel Barbero was sentenced to ten years in prison. However, he and six other defendants were acquitted of forming a drug trafficking gang.
The sentence stated that it was proved that A.C. arrived in La Herradura, mid afternoon, on the 19th May 1998 and visited several chiringuitos on the beach and met with several people. Then at a time which cannot be confirmed, but between two and three in the morning met the victim D.B.B on the seafront, a man with whom he had been dispute.
The origins of the dispute centre around money given to the victim by A.C. for his mussel farm business on the coast, but the deceased had voiced his objections to A.C. using the farm to bring hashís into Spain from Morocco.
After stopping the victims car and ‘in circumstances which are still unclear’ A.C. shot the victim causing ‘instant death’ with a gun which has never been found.
After the shooting, A.C. went to Galicia and from there, on a date unkown, on to Caracas (Venezuela), from where he was finally extradited in 2003.
The court felt that although there was ‘no direct evidence putting anyone at the scene,’ there was ‘sufficient circumstantial evidence’ that A.C. was the person who had fired the shot that killed the victim. The court also detailed further evidence of ‘repeated’ threats against the victim by A.C., along with several witness statements placing him in the area of the killing and with the victim, at a time when he stated he had left La Herradura and the victim. Also mentioned was his ‘hurried departure’ from the area.
With all this information, the court decided that the alibi given by A.C. was ‘totally false’ and it was not believed ‘credible’ that he would drive 1,000 kms to spend a couple of hours in La Herradura, then leave.
The victim’s family gave their opinion, “Daniel didn’t want to use the mussel farm to traffic drugs and he didn’t want to accept the money that was offered. My brother was murdered because he didn’t want to mix with that scum” said Joaquín and Rosario Barbero. The brother and sister also expressed shock and repulsion looking at the face of their brothers killer during the trial, and also a certain amount of fear at going up against a gang of dangerous drug traffickers.
At the time of his death, Daniel was 36-years-old, with a wife and four daughters, and his murder destroyed the entire family. “My parents were crushed by his death,” lamented Joaquin, “In time we hope that the wounds will heal, but we will never forget,” said an emotional Rosario as she leafed through the family photo album, containing many pictures of Daniel.
Not only the family are feeling a little nervous these days, with the trial still fresh in everyone’s minds, as many local people from La Herradura gave statements to the police and court, and this fact is the topic of many conversations in the village.
(News: Herradura, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)