The kickboxing fighter from Tenerife, Moisés Baute, one of three members of the Añaza gang accused of the alleged kidnapping and murder of 34-year-old Alberto González at the end of July, has just been transferred to a prison on the mainland.
Police operation in one of the houses where Alberto’s kidnapping and murder took place in Tenerife. / E. D.
According to investigation sources, the Court of Instruction Number 2 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which is handling the case, has received the notification from the Tenerife II prison, where Baute has been in preventive detention since August 2, confirming his transfer.
Still in Tenerife II
The other two accused of allegedly kidnapping, torturing, and killing Alberto González, and seriously injuring a friend known as León, remain in the Tenerife prison: the president of the Unión Deportiva Añaza football club and Tenerife businessman Aarón Vargas and nightclub doorman Jonathan Martín.
Two of them, Baute –nicknamed Moi the Ears– and Martín –The Fat One– surrendered early on July 30 at the Policía Nacional station on Avenida Tres de Mayo in Santa Cruz. They arrived in a Toyota with Alberto González’s body in the boot and a seriously injured young man, who survived the beatings, in the back seat. The third suspect, Aarón Vargas, was arrested three days later on August 1.
The criminal history of these three young men, including robberies from drug dealers –known in criminal slang as rollovers– has complicated their situation in Tenerife II. There are inmates who have scores to settle with this gang, which complicates security measures to preserve their integrity.
This situation was pointed out by the authorities at the Tenerife prison, which is why the judge opted for Moisés Baute’s transfer to another prison on the mainland. There are possibilities that the same decision could be made for the other inmates.
A fortified courthouse
It was this same circumstance that led the judicial authorities to adopt strong security measures when the three detainees were brought before the court on August 2. They were called to testify before the judge –they chose to exercise their right to remain silent– in a fortified courthouse in Santa Cruz, which was heavily guarded, and from there they were taken to Tenerife II.
The Homicide Group of the National Police continues its investigation and does not rule out more arrests. Officers have evidence that more people may have been involved in the alleged kidnapping and murder of Alberto González, a young man from El Cardonal (La Laguna) who also had a criminal record.
As inquiries progressed in a case that remains under secrecy, police have been able to outline the timeline of the main events leading to the detention and imprisonment without bail of Aarón Vargas, Moisés Baute, and Jonathan Martín, who are being investigated for homicide or murder (depending on the outcome of the investigation), aggravated injuries, and illegal detention against moral integrity.
The trigger
Everything was triggered in April, according to the primary hypothesis of the Police. During a music festival held in the south of Tenerife, Alberto had a confrontation with members of the Añaza gang. This fight continued in a nightclub in the main tourist area of the island. Alberto suffered injuries from a knife attack by a member of the rival group, with whom he already had an ongoing rivalry.
This altercation resulted in a series of threats that escalated over the following days. The Police have evidence that shots were fired at one of the Añaza gang members’ houses as a warning about possible reprisals from Alberto González’s group.
On Monday, July 28, a known associate of Albertito, as he was called in El Cardonal, summoned him to the car park of a supermarket in El Tablero, a neighbourhood in Santa Cruz. The young man went with his friend León in an Audi car, which is registered to a renting company based in Gran Canaria.
The timeline
However, when Alberto and León arrived at the car park, the associate who had arranged to meet them was not there. Instead, members of the rival gang appeared, presumably Moisés Baute and Jonathan Martín. From the moment they saw them, they realised that they had been lured into a trap.
Homicide agents work under the belief that during this meeting in the car park, the Añaza members kidnapped Alberto and León, forced them into a vehicle, and began to beat them to bind them. They would move them between several houses during the kidnapping.
Two inspected houses
The inquiries point to two locations where most of the events took place: a property located in Lomo de Mena, in the municipality of Güímar, in the south of Tenerife, and a house located on Salto del Ángel Street, in the Santa María del Mar neighbourhood of the capital of Tenerife. The latter would have been squatted by the Añaza gang, two of whose members –Moisés and Jonathan– are curiously linked to a de-squatting business.
A large operation by the National Police –armoured vans, patrols, and undercover vehicles– went to these two properties on August 1 to gather evidence. The following day, the judge ordered the imprisonment of the three detainees.
Thus, the kidnapping would have lasted three days, from Monday, July 28, to Wednesday, July 30, until Baute and Martín appeared at the Tres de Mayo police station in the early hours of July 30 with Alberto González’s body and León seriously injured, with a severe head injury that left him with an ear-to-ear wound.
Bludgeons used to hit the victims
During the detention, they reportedly used blunt objects such as hammers to hit the two victims and zip ties to restrain them. There are indications that some participants recorded the beatings on their phones. Homicide and Information agents have been scouring social media and questioning involved individuals in search of these videos, but not a single image has surfaced.
Alberto González was buried on August 5. His family still does not know the official cause of death. On the next Saturday, the 20th, there is a memorial gathering scheduled in his honour at the plaza of the church in El Cardonal from 11:00 to 13:00. The poster for the event reads: «Canary Islands say enough to the impunity of mafias in the Islands».
