The Court of Instruction number 2 of Arrecife, on duty, has ordered the provisional release of the nine people arrested as part of Operation JIPIJAPA, carried out by the Civil Guard of Costa Teguise against an alleged scam ring linked to a well-known private clinic in the tourist municipality.
The arrested individuals, eight in Lanzarote and one in the south of Gran Canaria, were brought before the court during the duty of Investigating Court No. 2, which ordered their provisional release as alleged perpetrators of crimes of continuous fraud and document forgery.
The operation concluded last Wednesday, December 17, with the arrest of nine healthcare center workers, who the Civil Guard initially accused of continued fraud, money laundering, and belonging to a criminal organization, although the legal classification has been provisionally limited to fraud and document forgery after their judicial appearance.
The investigation began on February 19, 2024, following a complaint filed at the Costa Teguise Main Post that alerted to alleged health irregularities at the clinic. As a result of this complaint, officers began an exhaustive investigation that led to searches authorized by Court of Instruction No. 1 of Arrecife, both at the clinic and at a related company based in Madrid.
During the searches, in which specialists from the Civil Guard's EDITE team in Las Palmas participated, abundant documentation and numerous electronic devices were seized, the analysis of which led to the discovery of an alleged network of scams against travel insurance companies, both national and international.
According to the investigation, the alleged criminal activity was carried out through a hierarchical structure, with a defined division of roles and a complex modus operandi, which would have made its detection difficult. Furthermore, some of those arrested continue to be investigated in a separate proceeding for a possible crime of reckless homicide, related to the death of a foreign tourist, a matter that remains under judicial investigation.
Since September 2024, the proceedings have been formally integrated into Operation JIPIJAPA, led by the Guardia Civil of Costa Teguise with the support of the Organic Unit of Judicial Police of Las Palmas. The investigation has had the collaboration of national and international police units, as well as numerous insurance companies from Europe, North America, and South America, several of which have joined the case as injured parties.