A National Police officer has reported to the European Public Prosecutor's Office a presumed case of improper use of European funds in the border control of the César Manrique Airport in Lanzarote. The allegedly defrauded amount amounts to one million euros from the European Regional Development Funds (ERDF).
Following this complaint, which La Voz has had access to and was filed on March 5, the European Public Prosecutor's Office responded that the narrated facts may constitute a crime of subsidy fraud. However, the European Public Prosecutor's Office must still carry out the relevant investigations to determine if "there are reasons" to exercise its competence.
Among other points, the complainant has reflected that the external border of the Lanzarote Airport has "an important fissure or vulnerability" within the European borders. Thus, he has highlighted that "it is not controlled beyond how a border is controlled for Schengen travelers and not for what it is cataloged as, as an external border", which would violate the European doctrine for citizens from outside the Union territory.
The case is also being followed in the Investigating Court number 2 of Arrecife after a complaint filed by the same police officer in 2023. The complainant submitted a document on March 14 to the aforementioned Investigating Court of Arrecife assuring that "European regulations on border crossing are not being complied with". In this line, he highlighted that "it was only complied with" on July 11, 2023, during the evaluation of the border by the European Commission, when allegedly agents from other destinations were used to complete the staff of the security control of the César Manrique aerodrome and pass the exam.
Thus, the complaint has pointed out as involved people who hold "positions of responsibility" in the Police Station of the town of Arrecife.
In this line, the complainant has highlighted that as a result of the complaint filed in Arrecife, "non-permanent reinforcements are being sent" from the Police Station of the capital of Lanzarote or from another Autonomous Community to the Lanzarote Airport. The objective, according to this complaint, would be "the sending of minimum personnel" to comply with "some statistics", having "a single police officer" at each boarding or disembarkation gate "with hardly any functions" to "falsify statistical data" and continue "with the alleged fraud".
Control of travelers from outside the European space
This alleged fraud to the European Union would be causing a security problem in the border control of the Lanzarote Airport, according to the complainant. For example, he has highlighted that the filter of travelers outside the Schengen area is done through "the ABC door without the Police checking the rest of the requirements of the thorough control". According to this same complaint, the objective is to "register the highest number of passenger entries and exits" as well as "try to accredit that the borders are controlled".
In addition, he has added that "in most cases" it is not verified that the traveler is the holder of the passport they carry, given the alleged reading failure of the verification systems. Thus, according to this testimony, "the door opens with third countries as if it were a traveler from the Schengen territory (when it does not fail) and there is no more control".
The police officer has alluded that the thorough control that could be carried out by border officials "is not carried out due to a lack of personnel that would delay the flow of travelers". In addition, he has denounced that currently the entry of travelers from outside the European Union "continues without controlling or stamping the passport" and that it is done "as if it were European" and not as the European Union orders for these cases.
Thus, he highlights that in each passenger "the period of stay, the return ticket, the economic resources (113.40 euros per day per person) and control stamp should be checked to reject entry due to overstay and other similar situations". The same occurs at the exit, where no "exit control is carried out, without stamping or checking stays, ownership of the passport, unless the handling companies detect any anomaly".
At the end of the document sent to the Investigating Court, the police officer has pointed to the commissioner of Arrecife and accuses him of not caring that the officials he sends to the Lanzarote Airport "do not know the European regulations or have the minimum mandatory border training, they do not need it for this way of acting".