The Civil Guard general to prison and freedom with charges to the rest of those arrested in the Mediador Case

The head of the Court of Instruction number 4 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has ordered the provisional imprisonment of the retired Civil Guard general Francisco Espinosa Navas for his alleged involvement in the Mediador case, related to an alleged extortion network of companies in the livestock and food sector.

According to the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands, he is the only detainee in this case who has been ordered to be imprisoned, since eight other people who have testified this afternoon before the judge have been released with precautionary measures, such as the obligation to communicate a change of residence.

All of them are being investigated for possible crimes of money laundering, bribery, membership of a criminal organization, forgery and influence peddling.

Francisco Javier Espinosa Navas, who has been imposed provisional communicated and unconditional imprisonment, was head of the Las Palmas Command a decade ago and, according to the Canary Islands media, the origin of a significant amount of cash found at his home is also being investigated.

Among those under investigation is the former Director General of Livestock of the Government of the Canary Islands, Taishet Fuentes (PSOE), who was dismissed from his duties last summer due to "loss of confidence", and his predecessor in office and deputy of the Socialist group in Congress until Tuesday, Juan Bernardo Fuentes Curbelo.

Both have been suspended from membership by the PSOE leadership.

On Thursday morning, the judge released the three people she had already taken statements from on bail, with several precautionary measures: withdrawal of their passports, prohibition from leaving the national territory and obligation to appear before a court on the 1st and 15th of each month.

These three defendants are charged with bribery, influence peddling, money laundering, forgery of documents and membership of a criminal organization.

In this case, alleged extortions of companies in the livestock sector are being investigated in exchange for avoiding sanitary inspections or speeding up or unblocking European aid files.