The Provincial Court of Almería, in Andalusia, Spain, has sentenced three Cuban citizens to prison for the attempted murder of a fellow countryman in the Almerian municipality of Roquetas de Mar in December 2022.
Two of the defendants received nearly ten years in prison each, while the third was sentenced to six years.
The ruling established that the mastermind behind the crime—who was a friend and bandmate of the victim—planned the attack due to "disagreements they had," according to local media.
To achieve this, he enlisted the help of two accomplices: a Cuban with whom he shared a residence in Almería, and another who traveled from the city of Oviedo in Asturias (almost a thousand kilometers away) to carry out the assassination attempt.
On December 12, 2022, the main accused rented a vehicle to "blend in."
The next day, the three of them went to bar 501 in Roquetas de Mar, intending to ambush their target.
According to the ruling, the mastermind lured the potential victim to the location under the pretext of buying cocaine, a fact that is being investigated in another case.
Hours later, around midnight, the attackers waited outside the bar until the victim arrived in his vehicle.
From the rented car, the Cubans fired six shots, although only one hit, injuring the ambushed Cuban in a glute.
The swift reaction of turning towards the passenger seat allowed them to maneuver the car and avoid a lethal hit. After the attack, the suspects fled the scene.
The court determined that, although the mastermind did not fire a weapon, he led and coordinated the plan, carrying out essential actions for its execution.
For his part, his roommate was identified as the person who fired the shots.
The accomplice who arrived from Oviedo was deemed a "necessary collaborator," as he did not carry out essential actions but provided logistical support and remained in the vicinity of the bar during the attack.
The intellectual author received a sentence of eight and a half years in prison for attempted murder, along with a restraining order of 500 meters for 17 years, five years of supervised release, and compensation of 22,560 euros to the victim.
This sentence is in addition to one year and three months in prison for illegal possession of firearms, totaling nine years and nine months of imprisonment.
Similar penalties were imposed on the co-author who fired the shots, while Oviedo's accomplice was sentenced to six years in prison: four years and nine months for attempted murder and one year and three months for possession of weapons.
The identities of the sentenced Cubans have not been revealed.
In another, much more recent violent incident -which also involves a Cuban- just three months ago in the same town of Roquetas de Mar, 76-year-old Cuban pediatrician Rafael Piorno Fermoselle was murdered at his home. His body, bound and lying in a pool of blood, was discovered on August 25th.
Piorno, who was originally from the municipality of San Luis in Santiago de Cuba, graduated as a specialist in Orthopedic and Traumatological Surgery from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Havana. He had been living in Spain for several decades, having arrived there with his wife, who was also of Cuban origin.
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