Fake fingerprint drugs chief jailed

A DRUGS trafficker who had his fingerprints surgically altered has been jailed for four years.

Francisco Javier Martinez San Millan, nicknamed El Franky, was also fined €4.2 million after being convicted of money laundering. 

He is already serving a 42-year sentence for trafficking offences in Galicia and Asturias.

Martinez San Millan evaded arrest for 12 years, but was finally arrested in August 2006 at his €3 million villa in Pedreguer. Neighbours believed he was an airline pilot.

During his 12 years on the run, El Franky had plastic surgery to change his appearance.  He also tried to avoid detection by having surgeons substitute the prints on his thumbs and index fingers with those from his toes.

This was necessary after he crushed his fingers in an accident, insisted Martinez San Millan during his trial.

His former wife, arrested at the same time, was acquitted by the Alicante high court, together with three other suspects.

Her claim that she came by the peseta equivalent of €288,000 in the 1998 Christmas lottery, was “suspicious,” according to the judge.  It could have been the result of money-laundering, he said in his summing up, but there was insufficient proof for a criminal conviction.

El Franky’s villa, impounded by the courts in 2007, has been loaned to Pedreguer town hall and is now used as a centre for the disabled.