Aurelio Estrella Río , sole administrator of Star Defense Logistics & Engineering (SDLE) , a company that regularly contracts with the Spanish Ministry of Defense, has been arrested for illegally selling material to the Libyan militia Special Deterrence Force, also known as Rada’a.
According to Spanish newspaper El Español, the arrest occurred a week ago and the equipment sold is drones with thermal cameras. The sale would have violated the international embargo imposed on Libya, incurring a crime of prohibited gender smuggling.
Citing judicial sources, El Español, reported that three other directors of the company, specialized in the manufacturing and marketing of weapons, have been arrested along with Estrella Río. A Libyan citizen who allegedly participated as an intermediary has also been arrested.
The judge of the Spanish National Court in charge of the investigation has ordered the imprisonment of the company’s administrator due to a possible risk of escape and destruction of evidence.
As per El Español, investigators from the General Information Commissariat (CGI) began investigating this case in 2020. That year, agents discovered that a Libyan citizen responsible for an armed militia in his country had traveled to Spain to meet with representatives of Star Defense Logistics Engineering (SDLE). He came to negotiate the purchase of drones with thermal cameras.
In a later phase of the investigation, the participation of four other people in the sale and subsequent illegal export of an anti-drone system destined for the Tripoli airport, controlled by the same militia, was proven.
This material, according to researchers, was valued at more than two million euros. The agents of the National Police arrested them for their alleged participation in the crimes of smuggling of prohibited goods and smuggling of dual-use material (which can be destined for both the civil and military fields).
After the arrests, investigators searched the SDLE facilities in Móstoles and two private homes in Valencia.
Over the last five years, Aurelio Estrella Río’s company has won numerous public contracts, especially in the field of the Armed Forces. SDLE has received more than 400 contracts from the Ministry of Defense worth 73.4 million euros in the last five years, according to El Español. It is an official supplier of NATO and the United Nations and one of the main suppliers of the Spanish Armed Forces for 10 years.