Drug arrest in Spain: an offence against public health

Decisions to take in the hours after a drug arrest in Spain

A drug arrest in Spain leaves little time and sets up decisions that are easy to get wrong. Several arise immediately, and each has a price.

• Answering questions in Spanish. Officers may speak some English, but the statement is recorded in Spanish and read back quickly. Ask for an interpreter and a lawyer, and say that you will answer after speaking to counsel. The price is that the officers may suggest you are making things worse; it is usually a small price compared with a poorly recorded statement.
• Explaining that the substance was for personal use. This distinction matters in Spain, where trafficking is an offence against public health but personal consumption in private is not sanctioned and in public is administrative. The price of the explanation is that it admits possession and sets the amount in context. Decide it with a lawyer who has seen the quantity and packaging.
• Accepting the duty lawyer. The system provides a lawyer. The advantage is speed. The price is limited time and, often, no English. Families may appoint a lawyer of their choice quickly, and Italian counsel can work with Spanish counsel from the start.
• Agreeing to searches of phones or accommodation. Refusal may not prevent a search with authority; agreement hands over more than was asked. Ask for the basis and for it to be written down.

Whatever you decide, give your name and documents and keep the rest for counsel.

Who is arrested for drugs in Spain, and where

Cases come from places that Italians know well. Nightlife areas on the Mediterranean coast and the islands, where a bag of pills or a gram of cocaine for a weekend turns out to be more than personal use. Airports in Madrid and Barcelona, where baggage screening and sniffer dogs find parcels, vitamin tubs and suitcases with false bottoms. Ports in the south, close to the sea routes from Africa, where drivers and crew are stopped. Cannabis clubs in Barcelona, where visitors join an association and carry product out of the premises.

The people involved are rarely traffickers in the way the headline suggests. They are tourists and seasonal workers who bought for a party, drivers who took a job without asking what was in the load, students who accepted a favour from a friend, residents who grew a few plants. Their families in Italy call because a short message arrived from a Spanish number, or because a friend told them that the person was taken from a bar.

The common misunderstanding is that Spain is relaxed about drugs. In the private sphere, consumption is not sanctioned. In public places possession for personal use is administrative, with a substantial penalty and seizure of the substance. Trafficking, which includes cultivation and production, is a criminal offence in bands according to the substance, and a quantity that looks modest in the hand can be treated as supply. The label on the paper matters more than the stage of the night.

What a Spanish drug arrest does to a holiday, a job and a household

The holiday ends. A group of friends has to decide whether to stay for the friend who was arrested, who pays for the hotel and how to return. Phones and passports may be held, and the person arrested may have no means of contacting family or paying for anything. The practical weight of the opening hours falls on whoever was nearest.

Work is the next issue. Seasonal workers in Spanish resorts may lose their jobs and accommodation the same day. An Italian employee on a trip may need to explain to the employer why he has not returned. Drivers and airline staff, and anybody whose licence or clearance depends on a clean record, should speak to the lawyer before answering any employer or regulator. Students may miss exams.

Families in Italy face the cost and difficulty of travel to a Spanish city, which is easy in terms of access since direct flights serve the main centres, but difficult in terms of what to do when they arrive. The person may be held for a short time at a police station, moved to a court, then to a prison, and each step changes who can visit and how. The foreign ministry's network of consulates helps with information, not with defence. The family should plan finances for lawyers, travel and the person's needs while the matter is open, and agree who takes calls from Spain so that messages are not lost.

Mistakes that make a Spanish drug case worse

These are repeated errors, with the reason for each.

• Do not say that drugs are legal in Spain. They are not, except in narrow private contexts, and the remark suggests you knew you were holding something.
• Do not rely on a club membership as a shield. Associations operate in a grey area, and taking product out of the premises or carrying it in public is a separate problem.
• Do not sign Spanish documents without an interpreter. The record is the basis for what follows.
• Do not discuss the case on the phone from custody. Calls are monitored.
• Do not ask a friend to retrieve anything from a room or a car. That is how a friend becomes a suspect.
• Do not post on social media from the trip. Prosecutors read photographs from nights out.
• Do not agree to take a package back to Italy as a favour. A courier of unknown goods is the usual profile of a suspect.
• Do not assume the Spanish file stays in Spain. Records can follow a person home.
• Do not bargain with the officers about the substance. Offers to hand over a contact or to cooperate in exchange for release are made through counsel or not at all.
• Do not travel on after release without asking. Conditions may include staying in the area or surrendering a passport.

Papers and information to gather for a Spanish drug file

The family can start collecting what the lawyer will need, even from Italy.

• The person's full name, date of birth, nationality and passport details, with the city, date and time of the arrest and the police force involved.
• The name of the police station or court holding the person and any reference number the family has been given.
• The name and contact details of the duty lawyer, if appointed, and what he has said.
• Travel records: flights, ferries, rental cars, hotel bookings and tickets, which show how long the stay was meant to be.
• Messages with friends and with anybody who supplied or offered anything, preserved as they are.
• Medical records or prescriptions that explain any substance or medicine carried, with translations.
• Employer, school and landlord details, so that a brief and accurate message can be sent.
• A note of the amount of cash and the cards carried, and bank records showing normal spending.
• Photographs of the room, the car or the bag where the substance was found, taken by a friend and not by the person under investigation.
• Receipts for drinks, taxis and entry tickets from the night in question, which show where the person was and for how long.
• The Spanish phone number the person used and the name of the operator, in case records are requested.
• For a cannabis association case, the membership card, the rules of the club and the receipt for the dose collected.

Keep originals and send photographs to the lawyer by email.

When the person is in Spain and the family is in Italy

The distance between Italy and Spain is small in terms of travel and large in terms of procedure. Direct flights connect Italian cities with the main Spanish centres, so a relative can reach the place of detention quickly. But the Spanish system runs in Spanish, and papers sent to the family may be in Spanish without a translation. Families should ask the lawyer in Spain for summaries in English or Italian, and get written translations of decisions.

The Italian state has consular offices in Spain, and the office with competence over the place of arrest will confirm the detention, give contact details for interpreters and lawyers and be a channel for messages. Which office covers which city depends on the region, so check on the foreign ministry's website. The consulate does not run the defence.

If the substance, the courier route or the supplier has an Italian end, Italian authorities may open a parallel inquiry or request documents from Spain. The Italian lawyer should know this from the start. Time zones are not an issue, since both countries share the same time zone, but weekends and holidays slow the courts. Money transfers to a person in custody need the lawyer's guidance on how it can be done. If the person is convicted or accepts a negotiated outcome in Spain, the effects at home, including on records and travel, should be discussed before any decision.

How the firm coordinates with Spanish counsel

Send the details to avvmassimoromano@gmail.com or by WhatsApp: the name of the person, the place and date of the arrest, any Spanish lawyer's name, and photographs of whatever paper exists. The telephone number is on this page, and messages are answered at any hour.

The opening call is a chronology. The lawyer asks where the person was arrested, what was found, what was said and signed, who has been told and what the family knows about the substance and its source. From the call comes a short plan: the contact with Spanish counsel, the documents to assemble and what to avoid saying to anybody.

The firm does not replace the Spanish advocate, since Spanish proceedings require a Spanish lawyer. It acts alongside that lawyer, reads the file in translation, explains it to the family in English and handles the Italian side, including any request from Spain, any record in Italy and any question about travel or work. If the person has no Spanish lawyer, the firm helps the family identify a lawyer with experience of foreign defendants. Offices in Rome, Milan and Naples serve families in different regions. The engagement is confirmed in writing, and written updates follow each step. If a hearing is called at short notice, the lawyer can speak to the Spanish advocate the same day and tell the family what was decided in plain English.

Questions to ask about a Spanish drug case

These questions are specific to cases arising in Spain.

• Which offence is alleged: trafficking in a substance causing serious harm, trafficking in another substance, or something else?
• Is the case treated as personal use, and what in the quantity and packaging points either way?
• Is the matter criminal or administrative, and does the answer change as the file develops?
• If the allegation involves cannabis, does the club or association context matter, and how?
• Is detention likely to continue, and what conditions could allow release?
• Are there aggravating circumstances in the file, and what do they depend on?
• Can the person leave Spain, and must he return for hearings?
• Will the Italian authorities be told, and could a parallel investigation open in Italy?
• What would a negotiated outcome mean for the record and for future travel?
• Will the case be heard in the place of the arrest, and where would the family attend?
• What is the practical difference between detention at a police station and in a prison, and how does the family keep contact?
• Can a fine, a payment or an early admission change the outcome, and what would it commit the person to?
• If the person is a minor or a student, which protections apply and who must be informed?

Write down the answers. Spanish procedure is often explained by the lawyer in a call and forgotten by the next call.

Spanish terms on police records and court papers

The words below come from the page. Translations vary, so it helps to know what each term does.

• Offence against public health — the category into which trafficking, cultivation and production of drugs fall.
• Higher band — the more serious treatment for substances causing serious harm, such as cocaine, heroin and MDMA.
• Lower band — the less severe treatment for other substances, including cannabis.
• Personal consumption — use of a substance by the person who holds it, which is not sanctioned in private and is administrative in public.
• Administrative penalty — a sanction imposed without a criminal court, often with seizure of the substance.
• Aggravating circumstances — facts that raise the treatment, such as quantity, organisation or the involvement of minors.
• Cannabis association — a members' club that organises shared consumption and growing, with legal limits.
• Duty lawyer — the lawyer assigned by the system when the person has not chosen a lawyer.

If a term on your paper is not here, send it to the lawyer as it appears, in Spanish, before trying to translate it. Spanish legal phrases often come with abbreviations on police forms, and a translator may expand them wrongly. Ask for the original text beside any Italian or English rendering, and compare the category of the substance on every paper, because the band decides the treatment.