Laurence Dollimore
THE stepson of the mayor of Marbella is facing 22 years in prison if he is convicted on a string of drug trafficking charges.
Joakim Peter Broberg, 51, is accused of leading a marijuana smuggling operation between Morocco, Spain and France.
Among the charges are leading a criminal organisation, bribery and money laundering, with prosecutors also seeking a €30 million fine.
Broberg is the stepson of conservative Marbella mayor Angeles Muñoz, who was in a long-term relationship with his father Lars Gunnar Broberg, before his death aged 80 last year.
Some 28 other people are also facing charges over the alleged trafficking network, which is said to have operated at its peak in 2019.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, Broberg and his accomplice Roberto Bayona, delivered marijuana from Spain to France.
Broberg is said to have been ‘the boss’ who was ‘in charge of maintaining contacts with suppliers and customers’, while Bayona ‘carried out personal interviews, follow-ups and necessary deliveries.’
Throughout 2020, court documents allege, Broberg ‘maintained contacts with different suppliers’, including the one known on EncroChat as ‘Canaryegg’, ‘in order to supply substances from Morocco that would arrive by ship to Spain.’
EncroChat was a protected and highly encrypted messaging service used by criminals around the world – before it was cracked by authorities in July 2020, leading to thousands of arrests worldwide and the seizure of more than €900 million.
It is alleged by prosecutors that Broberg bribed a local police officer in Marbella, who ‘provided him with restricted information in exchange for cash’.
The amount allegedly paid to officer Rafael Gallego was done so without leaving a trace, say court documents.
Broberg was able to do this with the help of his father Lars, who was also charged in the case before his death last year.
According to prosecutors, Joakim used two real estate offices in the Plaza de Marbella shopping centre as bases for his money laundering operations.
In October 2022, head of the Central Court of Instruction Number 6, Manuel Garcia Castellon, prosecuted around 30 people, including Broberg and his father, for allegedly being part of a Swedish gang that exported large quantities drugs, mostly marijuana and hashish, to the Nordic countries.
A trial date has not yet been set for Joakim, but the Prosecutor’s Office said he must face a jury for the alleged crime of bribing a police officer.
