On May 7th, a significant development took place in the investigation into the murders of the civil guards Miguel Ángel González and David Pérez, which occurred three months earlier in the port of Barbate. The joint team of the Central Operating Unit (UCO) and the Cadiz Command delivered two reports to the Court of First Instance and Instruction Number 1 in Cadiz, where the cause for the deaths of the two agents was being investigated. One report was an exhaustive analysis of videos from eight cameras that captured a narco-speedboat ramming into the Zodiac carrying the two victims and four colleagues on February 9th. The second report informed the judge that, based on the analysis exonerating the six previously arrested suspects, a new line of investigation was being pursued to identify the real culprits. Five months after opening this new line of investigation, the Guardia Civil successfully arrested Karim El Baqqaly, who confessed to being the pilot of the boat that killed the two agents.
Between the May report and the arrest, the Guardia Civil conducted complex investigations with crucial information provided by informants. This information helped identify the arrested individual as the pilot of the narco-speedboat, as detailed in a report incorporated into the case file accessed by El País. The report highlighted that these confidential sources confirmed the involvement of a person named “Karim” as mentioned by one of the initially arrested individuals, leading to the identification of the person responsible for piloting the boat that night. The report emphasized the importance of such confidential information in advancing investigations against drug trafficking and the need to protect the identities of informants fearing reprisals.
The report also mentioned the arrest of Puspus, a known drug trafficker and the owner of the narco-speedboat piloted by Karim. There were previous instances where Puspus was identified by authorities, including one in May 2020 when he was found in a boat alongside the now incarcerated El Baqqaly, who is his nephew. The report detailed El Baqqaly’s criminal history, starting from his arrest in 2010 for trafficking drugs on an unregistered boat. Subsequent arrests by both the Police and Guardia Civil followed, with the latest in 2023 when he was apprehended while traveling with other individuals, including Hassan E. M., Puspus’ son and his cousin. Additionally, there was an outstanding arrest warrant against him since 2021 for his alleged involvement in a drug smuggling case.
The Guardia Civil report contradicted El Baqqaly’s statement to the judge, emphasizing that the intentional nature of the attack on the agents had been previously suggested by investigators. The individuals on the speedboat were aware that they were attacking an official vessel occupied by agents and deliberately attempted to end their lives with disregard for human life. The report described the aggressive collision where the speedboat rammed into the official vessel, passing over it with sharp metallic elements on the hull. The absence of drugs or illicit goods on the speedboat during the attack indicated a malicious intent to cause harm or take lives, as stated in the report. The brutal attack was carried out without any reasonable justification, pointing towards a deliberate act of violence.
