Can You Be Convicted for Squatting? Article 568.2 Criminal Code

Have you been arrested or investigated for fuel trafficking?

The crime of fuel trafficking has stopped operating in a gray area. Today there is already an express provision in the Criminal Code to punish the transport and storage of liquid fuel in this context.

Drug trafficking proceedings in Spain increased from 23,949 in 2023 to 29,758 in 2024, with an increase of 23.21%. In Andalusia, 5,276 proceedings were initiated in 2024. Furthermore, the Anti-Drug Prosecutor’s Office itself describes fuel trafficking as a particularly lucrative and widespread activity, providing very specific examples: 88,944 liters seized in Almería and 147,192 in Huelva. If you find yourself in a similar situation, you need a criminal defense attorney from the very first moment.

What is fuel trafficking?

When referring to fuel trafficking, we are talking about, in practice, the transport, storage or supply of gasoline intended to fuel vessels linked to drug trafficking, especially speedboats. This is not a minor offense or a simple excess in fuel transport. Behind many proceedings appears a very specific logistics operation: containers, auxiliary boats, loading points, clandestine transport, provisioning and supply on the high seas, especially in the Strait of Gibraltar and Campo de Gibraltar area.

The Anti-Drug Prosecutor’s Office itself has been describing the fuel trafficker as someone who transports or stores gasoline in large quantities intended for supplying fast boats used to introduce hashish from North Africa.

Where is it regulated?

Here is the major development. Organic Law 1/2026, of April 8, has modified article 568 of the Criminal Code and introduces a new paragraph 2. The preamble of the law expressly states that this second paragraph is incorporated «to respond to the practice commonly known as fuel trafficking.» Since the law came into force, when the flammable substance

Investigated for fuel trafficking or drug trafficking in Madrid?

What are the penalties for the crime of fuel trafficking?

Following the reform introduced by Organic Law 1/2026, fuel trafficking now has an express provision in article 568.2 of the Criminal Code. From now on, when the flammable substance is a liquid fuel, the penalty for fuel trafficking provided is three to five years in prison. Additionally, the law itself allows for imposing a lower degree penalty when dealing with conduct of lesser severity, considering the circumstances of the act and the perpetrator.

This means we are no longer facing a purely interpretive discussion about whether gasoline could fit into the old article 568. Today the legislator has wanted to make clear that the transport, storage or supply of liquid fuel in this context can have its own criminal response. And this very seriously elevates the risk for any person under investigation, including the possibility of provisional detention from the investigation phase.

However, in many proceedings the prosecution is not satisfied with charging only the crime of fuel trafficking. It is common for them to try to link this conduct to a broader criminal structure and to other more serious crimes. Therefore, when a person is arrested or investigated for fuel trafficking, it is not enough to look at the penalty in article 568. We must also study what other crimes the Prosecutor’s Office intends to build around the case.

What other crimes could be investigated in addition to the crime of fuel trafficking?

Criminal organization or criminal group

If the prosecution understands that the transport or storage of fuel was not an isolated act, but rather part of a stable, coordinated operation with division of functions, they may try to add a crime of criminal group or even criminal organization.

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What to do if you have been arrested for fuel trafficking

If you have been arrested for fuel trafficking, the first mistake is thinking you are facing a secondary matter or a simple irregularity in fuel transport. Today the criminal risk is direct. And, furthermore, the proceedings can escalate very quickly if the Prosecutor’s Office tries to connect it with drug trafficking, smuggling, criminal group or criminal organization.

The first thing is not to make a statement without a clear strategy. The second is to analyze from minute one what the prosecution can actually prove. It is not the same as an isolated transport versus coordinated logistics. It is not the same as a case of lesser severity versus a stable operation. It is not the same as police suspicion versus solid proof of connection to drug trafficking. In this field, nuances matter a lot.

How a criminal defense attorney can help you in fuel trafficking cases

A fuel trafficking attorney is not there to repeat what the police report says. They are there to dismantle it when it can be dismantled, limit the scope of the prosecution and fight every point that artificially aggravates the proceedings. In fuel trafficking cases, this involves discussing the true severity of the act, the correct application of article 568, whether or not there is lesser severity, proof of connection to drug trafficking and the specific role each person under investigation had.

A good criminal defense attorney also knows when the Prosecutor’s Office is trying to turn a serious intervention into a major drug trafficking case without sufficient basis. And they know when it is appropriate to focus the defense on denying the connection to an organization, when to attack the criminal classification and when the realistic objective is to prevent a fuel trafficking charge from dragging along even more serious crimes.

If you are being investigated for fuel trafficking, act before the case advances

In these proceedings, arriving late comes at a high cost. If you have been arrested, i

Are you being investigated for fuel trafficking? Act before the case advances.