The Civil Guard searched this past Monday a house in Arrieta within the framework of Operation Valka, which investigates possible crimes related to public corruption and urban planning in the City Council of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. According to reported the Prosecutor's Office, there are five people under investigation, including a businessman who owns properties in Lanzarote: Felipe Guerra.
The investigated are charged with, among others, several crimes of administrative prevarication, urban planning prevarication, influence peddling, negotiations and activities prohibited to public officials, embezzlement of public funds, forgery in public documents and disclosure of privileged information.
In addition to the Canarian businessman Felipe Guerra, senior officials of the management of the Municipal Urban Management Company of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (GEURSA), Marina Más and Carlos Cabrera, the previous Urban Planning coordinator, José Manuel Setién and a former director of Parks and Gardens Miguel Ángel Padrón, are under investigation, according to the newspaper La Provincia.
Within the framework of this operation, the Civil Guard also searched the headquarters of GEURSA, the IT department of the municipal offices of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria City Council and the facilities of the Department of Parks and Gardens of the capital's consistory. In addition to several properties owned by Felipe Guerra in Tamaraceite (Gran Canaria) and Arrieta. Also according to La Provincia, "various computer equipment" was seized in the searches and "supports were collected in the dependencies of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria City Council."
The judicial investigation considers the possible existence of an organized network dedicated to illicitly favoring, with urban planning and administrative decisions contrary to the general interest, certain businessmen. According to the Public Ministry, these businessmen "depend, to a large extent," on administrative decisions that are "in the hands or under the sphere of influence of the positions and former public positions that belong to GEURSA S.A.
In addition, it investigates the fraudulent awarding of work assignments, awarding of contracts, and projects for the implementation of large works, such as the metroguagua, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
The searches are being carried out under the direction of the investigating magistrate of the Court of Instruction number 2 of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the delegated prosecutors of the Prosecutor's Office for the Environment and Urban Planning and the Prosecutor's Office against Organized Crime of Las Palmas, in addition, it is being prepared jointly by the Civil Guard, made up of members of Seprona, the Central Environmental Operations Unit (Ucoma), the Technological Crimes Group and Edite of the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police Command of Las Palmas.
The investigation is under summary secrecy and remains open, so future arrests and/or charges are not ruled out.
