An inflatable doll, a photo and a few beers in a bar: this was the investigation into the hanged Vinicius doll | Sports

It all started with the inflatable doll that the agents baptized as Sandra. Police investigators didn’t have much else to throw away to find out who had hung that giant banner and the figure pretending to be Real Madrid player Vinicius hanged. Whoever had done it, chose a symbolic place, the Valdebebas bridge, a few meters from the white sports city. And he also selected a designated day, that of the cup derby that faced the rojiblancos and meringues on January 26. Neither in the area nor in the surroundings they found cameras that would have recorded the moment in which these elements were placed. So all the answers were in that blow-up doll. And he began to speak.

The authors of this action had posted a photo of the puppet on his back on the networks that same day, displaying the name of Vinicius against a brick wall. The picture didn’t have much more than a piece of wall and the corner of a brown frame of what looks like a blackboard or window. The investigators of the Provincial Information Brigade of the Superior Police Headquarters of Madrid intuited that this place could be in the surroundings of the Cítivas Metropolitano stadium, if they found the exact place, they would be undoing the steps that the perpetrators took that day. And bingo! It was a corner near a bar.

The agents were able to verify, using police techniques, who had been in that establishment on the day of the events, and they found some suspicious names. “They had been there drinking beers, as almost all fans do before or after the games,” explains a police source. Among those fans are the ultras, the members of the Athletic Front. Parallel to these investigations, those of the scientific police continued, including fingerprinting and the search for DNA remains. The investigators found 10 fingerprints that did not give results in the comparison with the database available to the security forces and bodies and in which only criminals with criminal records appear. DNA results take time.

Again, the blow-up doll was the key. They could only count on her because a mysterious figure had been in charge of removing the banner that they spread next to her, which read the message: “Madrid hates Real.” The agents turned to the world of sex shop, the stores that sell erotic and sexual products. They tracked endless numbers of them both physically and in the virtual world. “About 60”, specifies the source close to the case. They found the same model in one of them. Precisely, in an area close to Valdebebas. “It has to be this one,” they said to themselves. “Could you tell us if this doll was purchased on dates close to January 26?” they asked the merchant. The response was positive. That same day one had been sold. They were almost caressing a very good track when the ticket arrived with the time of that purchase. It was after the moment the doll was found hanging. Water.

They went back to the names that had been in that brick wall bar. leaked. They consulted their informants. And they found the four names with the most ballots. They responded to the initials of ABR, ARL, JMMT and PSM Three of them accredited members of the Athletic Front who had been identified among the ultras in high-risk matches, and one of them, the youngest, a sympathizer. The investigators judicially requested the positioning of their phones on the day the banner and the hanged doll were seen. Now yes, touched and sunk. The signal from their four mobile phones placed them in the vicinity of that bridge and in the area of ​​the Metropolitan Stadium.

There was still a question mark: where was the banner and who had taken it? “A Valdebebas employee went and picked it up that same day and kept it there, in the sports city,” explain sources close to the investigation. The last confirmation of the authorship of these four detainees came with the comparison of one of the two DNA samples obtained, which coincided with that of the oldest of the suspects, who had a record for a crime of injuries. Last week, the investigators informed the Ciberodio Prosecutor’s Office and the judge who has investigated the case that those who the investigations had indicated as guilty were going to be arrested on Tuesday.

Three live in the San Blas neighborhood of Madrid. One of them was not at home and was arrested at his partner’s home in Alcorcón. They are 19, 21, 22 and 24 years old, and none of them is a relevant figure within the ultras. They are the four fans who one day bought an inflatable doll, put a black player’s jersey on it and hung it from a bridge. Those detained by Operation Sandra are accused of a hate crime.

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