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The “Diesel King” is a life of smuggling, fraud and leaks



75% diesel and 25% oil, this was the formula used by the businessman from Almeria Emilio Torresillas Martínez to market adulterated diesel. From 2007 to at least 2010, he managed to distribute fraudulent fuel to hundreds of service and transport stations in southeastern Spain. Torresillas, 66, from Albanches, had already been convicted in 1995 of smuggling offenses. To achieve his ends, he used other people as figureheads and repeated them in the same way years later. Thanks to the “massive financial engineering” based on hundreds of transactions between companies, whether they are non-existent or without activity, they evade the special tax on hydrocarbons. He acted straightforward and used other people already tried, a perfect cover to pretend the oil was going overseas. The oil operation of the Customs Control Authority and the Civil Guard uncovered the adulterated diesel fraud plot in 2010. Ten years later, the verdict came with reduced sentences due to the delay in the case, which began with the brain drain of the organization. “El Rey del Diesel”, as Emilio Torrecillas is called, had three main businesses. Gasóleos Las Palmeras, dedicated to buying and selling diesel; The two companies ERTA Servicios and Corporación Butchart were responsible for the transportation of the fuel and its derivatives. Oil tankers arrived at a warehouse from Cantoria in Almeria to make the mixture from Fuenlabrada in Madrid. Another company, Tracemar, obtained it from a refurbishment of lubricating oils that, when used in commerce within the community, are tax deductible. Here was the “core” of the matter. To make this possible, Torrecillas invented two more companies that bought the liquid in Italy and France, but never left Spain. In most cases, payments were made manually, logically with black money. More than 498 operations have been investigated, and no tanker loaded with mineral oil has left Spanish territory. The trucks have arrived at the facilities of the industrial zone in the province of Almería. The resulting product was sold secretly through his own networks, without billing and with the help of other companies. Thousands of liters of adulterated fuel have been found on record. It is estimated that fraudulent sales to transport companies and petrol stations exceeded 14 million liters from 2007 to 2010 with customers in Almeria, Murcia, Alicante, Valencia, Cuenca and Madrid. With great benefits and through shell companies, he acquired hundreds of properties that appear in the names of third parties. Plots and houses were distributed in Huércal-Overa, Mojácar, Zurgena and Cuevas de Almanzora in the province of Almería, but also in the Murcian capital and the municipality of San Javier with an estimated value of 2.8 million euros. After ten years of operation, in June 2021, the “diesel king” was arrested by the National Police in a hotel in Logroño in Cantabria. During a routine surveillance operation, agents discover his identity and that he is wanted and captured by a court in Madrid and another in Almeria. Torresillas fled while his collaborators were put on trial. They realize facts, fake documents, acquire goods with money from scam and set up shell companies. Heritage reports have proven the moves that were carried out and the companies used to evade capture. A few weeks ago, the Supreme Court sentenced the businessman from Almería to 14 years and three months in prison and to pay fines of more than eight million euros. The sentence by the Almería court was reduced by one year, as his defense admitted money laundering, but by an amount less than that set by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. After a decade of search and capture, a statute of limitations was requested, but the ruling rejected it on the basis of it. The dealerships have identified cars worth €785,990, including a fleet of 20 vans and 24 cars. Torresillas’ criminal history dates back to 1995 when he was convicted of smuggling. And the businessman from Almería sold what was not, thus exporting 45,000 kilograms of sugar to Morocco, after obtaining assistance from the European Union. What reached the upper state was nothing but marble dust.

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