The Mossos d’Esquadra are investigating the possible connection of the honorary consuls of Albania, Mali and Croatia in Barcelona with a alleged money laundering scheme of members of the Jodorovich family, a clan that has been the target of numerous police operations in the past, almost always related to drug trafficking. The businesses that supposedly unite them are diverse: from the manufacture in Avilés (Asturias) of a machine designed to process hemp and transform it into oil to real estate operations, through other investments, according to the police reports to which EL PERIÓDICO has had access. The investigations have been extended to Andorra, a country from which bank account details of 12 people and 26 companies linked to the network have been requested.
On September 18, the Generalitat police deployed a device in the Zona Franca, which included searches and the arrest of four people, between them Simon Montero Jodorovich, President of the Federació d’Associacions Gitanes de Catalunya (FAGI). The others arrested are close relatives of him and members of the Mulatto clan. The Barcelona judge instructing the case, Miriam de la Rosa, released all of them on provisional release.
In the police list of those investigated there are 14 other people, among whom are the honorary consul of Mali in Barcelona, José Luis López Fernández; his counterpart from Croatia, Juli Bárcena San José, and the from Albania (before Canada), José María Calmet Iglesias, an economist and businessman from Manresa who was vice president of the Barcelona Provincial Council and a confidant of Lluís Prenafeta, former secretary general of the Presidency with Jordi Pujol, as well as CEO of the oil company Petrocat. The judge is waiting for the results of the investigations to decide whether to take a statement.
“Dynamic person”
The Mossos d’Esquadra consider Montero Jodorovich, whom they define as one “Dynamic person and high representative of the gypsy people in Catalonia”, supposedly has created “corporate structures” that they have allowed part of “economic riches” to emerge, in his opinion, of illegal origin, while he has approached the “lobby of the consular body of Barcelona”. The police say that Montero Jodorovich has participated “closely” in business with López Fernández, the Malian consul and secretary of the consular corps, while highlighting the relationship with Bárcena San José, representative of Croatia and member of said body.
Albania’s honorary diplomat Calmet Iglesias is implicated by agents in a purchase and sale of a luxury estate located in the town of Seva (Osona). «There is no irregularity. I am very calm. When the judge summons me to testify, I will clarify it, “he stated emphatically to this newspaper. Both López Fernández and Bárcena San José have not been located. Nor has it been possible to collect Montero Jodorovich’s version.
The police indicate in their reports that, as the investigation progressed (mainly due to the wiretapping of members of the plot), shared corporate structures began to appear between Montero Jodorovich and the consul of Mali, López Fernández. It is suspected that, at first, one of the common projects was the commercialization of an energy drink, but later it points to the construction of a machine designed to produce hemp oil.
The investigators maintain that transfers were made from current accounts in Mali to the company that manufactured the device or there were cash deliveries. But the police believe that the “real deal” they were trying to create “is the cultivation of marijuana plantations in Mali to make the oil ».
«Huge cautions»
The Mossos stand out the “opacity” of the operation and the “enormous caution” adopted in the intercepted communications between the two partners, “which is a clear indicator of a possible illegality of the matters discussed.” They point out that this oil with a high content of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) is used to make the “Phoenix tears”, a form of marijuana consumption widespread in the US and Canada and illegal in Spain.
The agents insist on the “extreme opacity of honorary diplomacy, where no transparency is appreciated on the pretext of defending the reason of State.” These positions, many times held by businessmen or ex-politicians and which are not charged by the country to which they are represented, grant those who exercise them “prestige, privileges and social relations, not to mention the coveted diplomatic bag, inviolable and that crosses borders regardless of any control ». Some sources claim that these bags are only held by the embassies of each state. The police also complain about the lack of control over honorary consuls. “The spanish government has no chance to intrude in their affairs, beyond withdrawing their approval, a very aggressive measure at the diplomatic level, “the agents say in their reports.
What is an honorary consul?
The honorary consul you are not usually a national of the country for which you act, but rather has the nationality of the territory of residence or, even, of a third State. They are normally prestigious people or widely known in the community where they live, professionals or entrepreneurs.
As opposed to the career consul, he is only competent to exercise a limited and secondary number of functions. A former consul of an African country details to this newspaper that those who hold this position do not have political capacity and among their tasks is the assistance to citizens of the country they represent or the promotion of the economy, solidarity and culture between both states, as well like other merely bureaucratic procedures. These non-career diplomats are governed by the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.
The Foreign Ministry of the country that intends to have representation in a city is the one that proposes to its Spanish counterpart, through the reference embassy, the name of the person who has been chosen to act as honorary consul. After that, the Spanish Foreign Ministry orders the Interior Ministry with a police report on the candidate. If there is no problem, Spain gives the placet. The King, as head of state, recognizes the consul as such and authorizes him to exercise his functions. In Barcelona there is a high number of honorary consuls.
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