Perhaps the most illustrative scene of the Asturian plot that participated in the 11-M terrorist attacks in Madrid was the improvised bachelor party of Emilio Suárez Trashorras, who obtained the explosives, and his best friend, whom he met five months before: a minor under 16 years of age, Gabriel Montoya Vidal, Baby. Trashorras got married on February 14, almost a month before the attacks.
The day after Baby returned from Madrid from taking explosives to the terrorists without knowing what he had in his backpack, Emilio called him on the phone. Nothing special: go back to day to day life. We had breakfast together at dawn, with Avilés deserted, and began to move to run a buoyant business that diversified into many branches. They followed the routine mechanics of two dealers, each one serving their client portfolio, collecting debts and moving drugs from here to there through Avilés and surrounding areas. They used hashish and cocaine almost daily, but they did not drink to the point of losing control. They continued to end the nights in the usual brothels with friends from the group.
On the eve of the wedding, on Friday the 13th, Suárez Trashorras met Baby and they went to party in Luanco, 15 kilometers from Avilés. Baby tells the whole story in the book See you in this life or the next (Planeta), which I published in 2016 and which inspires the recently released series See you in another life (Disney), created by brothers Jorge and Alfonso Sánchez-Cabezudo. The story that follows is published in the book and describes the unnatural, but lethal, mix of low-level crime in Avilés with jihadist terrorism: one, Trashorras, had access to explosives through his former job as a miner; others, the terrorists, had the hashish that was already being smoked in Avilés.
On that eve of the wedding, the two of them traveled around ten at night in a new car, a black Mercedes 190 that Emilio had recently bought. They went to a client’s bar, Fino, who used to buy hashish from them. El Fino had a sister to whom Emilio, to anticipate his visit, had sent a bouquet of flowers that morning. The night before the ceremony got out of hand for Emilio and Baby. They drank and did cocaine all night. At one point during the party, Emilio observed, according to him, that a boy was treating his girlfriend badly. He told his friends that it wasn’t right. He went up to the couple, grabbed the boy and punched him, knocking out a tooth. A small crowd formed in the pub that ended with the couple leaving the premises. Baby and Emilio continued drinking until dawn.