When the police investigated the crime of the founder of Mango, a motive had disappeared. Then they looked at their son’s car.
Tuesday May 19, Jonathan Andic is ordered to go to prison. It has been ordered by the Judge of the Courts of Instance and Investigation of Martorell who are handling the case of the death of Isak Andic, founder of Mango and one of the richest people in Spain. The order arrives after evaluating the information provided by the Mossos d’Esquadra. A report that points to the poor relationship between father and son, “the obsession that Jonathan Andic has with money”, in the words of the judge, and “the emotional manipulation to achieve his economic goals” that the son would have used against the father. But there are also indications that point beyond mere personal relationships. The researchers They assure that the footprints collected on the path of the Monserrat mountain, next to Barcelona, where Isak Andic fell do not agree with a fortuitous slip. Nor are the version changes understood regarding the use that the founder of Mango would have made of his own mobile phone. And, as always, there is the matter of geolocation. But this time the Mossos d’Esquadra are not targeting the cell phone. They point to a much larger and more forceful object: one called Mercedes-AMG G63. Not just the mobile phone If the ubiquitous true crime podcasts or television series have taught us anything, it is that the mobile phone is a source of problems when it comes to murdering a person or disposing of a corpse. The persistent location of the telephone, either due to the use of the Internet or the search for antennas to connect to to access the mobile telephone network, has become one of the first threads to pull when studying one of these cases. In the case involving Isak Andic it has been no less. That is why the police report refers to the replacement of an iPhone 14 owned by the son of the founder of Mango with an iPhone 16 Pro after an alleged robbery during a lightning trip to Ecuador between March 24 and 26, 2025 when the media reported on the reopening of the investigations. The inherited content of the old phone was deleted and agents have found no evidence of such theft. However, this time it was not the location of the phone that made the agents suspicious. In their report they point out that they can prove that Jonathan went to the hiking route on up to three occasions in the days prior to the alleged murder. And for this they use their Mercedes-AMG G63. They point in three directions. The first is that the alleged visits coincide in days with the car entering and leaving the city of Barcelona, comparing the license plate with the surveillance system of the low emissions zone. Also because the traffic cameras of Collbató, the municipality where the natural enclave is located, also recorded the passage of the vehicle. And, also, by the IMEI of the car. What is the IMEI of our car? Connections to mobile networks on a data plan have their own serial number. Each phone has its own and information on when and where it connects to the Internet or telephone networks can be tracked by police officers. But not only phones are identified with a IMEI. Modern cars also have one if they are connected to the mobile networksince they have the modem that guarantees said connection. Nowadays it is common for a new car to come with a data plan and a SIM card with a duration stipulated by contract. The duration is usually years and, after the stipulated time, the client decides whether or not to renew the plan. This data plan is what allows, for example, to use the car navigator with real-time traffic directions. And it is also the one that in an electric car allows us to know the occupancy rate of the chargers or manage certain functions of the car, such as air conditioning or opening doors, from a mobile application. Just like a mobile phone, these recurring connections made by a car with an active SIM leave a digital trail. And that digital trace is associated with the IMEI with which each vehicle is identified. The result is clear: the police only need the operation of a car equipped with this service to detect where the vehicle moved and at what time. This system should not be confused with the eCall security service of our cars. Since 2018all new cars are required to be sold with the eCall system, a service that allows the driver contact emergency services in the event of an accident. This is activated automatically if a collision is detected but can also be started by the driver himself. At that moment, an attempt is made to establish a call but, whether there is coverage or not, the car also launches a geolocation signal using the European Galileo system so that the emergency services can have a clear idea of the location in the shortest possible time. This system, obviously, has its own IMEI but it is only activated when the system is started, either with automatic activation when the accident is detected or manual activation. Meanwhile, the system is inactive and therefore the car cannot be tracked. Besides, the European Union makes clear that the data saved is done so temporarily because the memory “will only be allowed to retain the last three locations of the vehicle to the extent strictly necessary to determine the current location of the vehicle and the direction of travel at the time of the event.” The regulations also make it clear that the information can only be delivered to third parties with the prior consent of the interested party and that no company can have access to the data if no emergency call occurs. Therefore, the IMEI referred to by the Mossos d’Esquadra refers to the car’s modem but they would not be able to access it if the car did not have … Read more
