The story of Hercules Cortez being sentenced to six years in prison.
This is an interesting story involving Hercules Cortez (or Hércules Cortés as he was known in Spain) that is not widely known. It all began in March 1970. At the time Cortez was the World Heavyweight champion (Spanish version), a title he had held since 1964, and was undoubtedly the top pro wrestling star in his home country of Spain.
 |
| Hercules Cortez |
In March 1970 police in the Spanish capital Madrid spotted two men hanging around clubs and cafes and they suspected the men were selling drugs so they put them under surveillance. Eventually this led to a raid of an apartment where the police seized 4 kilos (8.8 pounds) of pure hashish (concentrated cannabis). The drugs had a street value of 120,000 Spanish pesetas.
Four men were arrested in conjunction with this case. Cortez spent just over a month in jail and was eventually released on bail. Once he got out of jail he resumed his wrestling career and continued being a headline star all across the country. Eventually he was even allowed to go to the United States in November 1970 to wrestle there for Verne Gagne's AWA.
The trial for the drug charges took place in April 1971. Cortez wasn't present as he was still in the States. The prosecution was asking for Cortez to get 9 years in prison and a fine of 30,000 Spanish pesetas. The verdict ended up being guilty and Cortez was sentenced to six years and one day in prison and a fine of 30,000 or 36,000 pesetas (there's conflicting reports about the exact number). Cortez' lawyer appealed the verdict.
The following month Cortez, who upon his return to Spain was supposed to go straight to jail, won the AWA World Tag Team Championship along with Red Bastien. Before his appeal of the verdict could be heard in court, Cortez regrettably passed away in a car crash in July 1971.
Curiously, the following year one of the biggest Spanish newspapers "As" ran with a front-page story which claimed that Cortez was in fact still alive and had faked his own death, with some help from a drug trafficking cartel, and was now living under a false identity in Mexico. The article claimed Spanish police and Interpol were looking into the story and that Cortez's body, which was buried in Ohio, was going to be exhumed to confirm if it was really him. I don't think things ever went that far and that was the end of that claim. It should also be pointed out that the claim of Cortez of still being alive wasn't well-received in Spain and some other Spanish newspapers criticized the author for running with this story.
For additional details, take a look at the articles below.
 |
| Spanish article about the arrest of Hercules Cortez |
 |
| Spanish article about the sentence of Hercules Cortez |
 |
| The Spanish article claiming Hercules Cortez was still alive |
Comments
Post a Comment