The National Police reported this Friday that the alleged perpetrators of the murder of Juan Carlos Tejera Acosta, which occurred in March 2015, have been arrested. These are 5 people who, according to the police force, are already in prison by court order. All of them belonged to a criminal organization based in the south of Tenerife and dedicated to committing violent robberies. Tejera's body appeared after more than a week of intense search hidden in a cave, tied up and with "obvious signs of violence."
A year and a half after the event, the judicial authority has lifted the secrecy of the summary of this case and the Police have revealed that Juan Carlos was "kidnapped" by his murderers in the "belief that he kept a large amount of money." The investigation began on March 13 of last year. That day a complaint was filed at the Arrecife Police Station, in which the disappearance of the young Juan Carlos Tejera Acosta was reported, in circumstances that led the Police to classify it as "high risk." The investigation determined that he was last seen alive the night before, in a bar in Arrecife where he had been with some friends.
After the discovery of his vehicle and several personal belongings in the Argana Alta area, as well as the discovery of a blood stain in Juan Carlos's garage, the search operation was intensified. According to the National Police in a statement, they had "the participation of personnel from the Arrecife Police Station, the General Subdirectorate of Logistics of the DGP and Air Resources of the Superior Headquarters of the Canary Islands Police."
Finally, on March 21, 2015, with the incorporation to the search of the Canine Guide Unit of the Provincial Brigade of Citizen Security of Las Palmas, and specifically the human remains tracking dog (REHU), the corpse of Juan Carlos Tejera Acosta was located in a cave in the Argana Alta landfill. The cavity was covered with stones and earth, and the body was "shackled hand and foot, showing clear signs of violence," recalls the Police.
Police investigation
The police force points out that the investigations were carried out by the Arrecife Police Station and by the Homicide Group of the Provincial Brigade of the Judicial Police of Las Palmas. Their investigations, together with the "thorough analysis of the vestiges found" in the ocular inspections of the vehicle, the garage of the deceased and the place where the corpse was found, by officials of the scientific police of the General Police Station and the Lanzarote Police Station, focused the search for the perpetrators of the crime on a criminal organization based mainly in the south of Tenerife and dedicated to violent robberies. "This criminal organization, which used violence against its victims, kidnapped Juan Carlos Tejera Acosta in the belief that he had a large amount of money stored," explains the Police.
"The numerous police devices for monitoring and evaluating the people presumably related to the network, served the investigators to fully identify the members of the criminal organization in which they focused the investigations," continues the police report. The investigators emphasize that they faced the lack of "witnesses or conclusive evidence of authorship" of the members of the group, "which resulted in a laborious work carried out by the agents who had all the material and human resources available," he says.
Finally, and after a "complicated investigation aimed at obtaining sufficient evidence", the arrests took place, between June 15 and 17, 2016, of the five members of the criminal organization as alleged perpetrators of the murder and illegal detention of Juan Carlos. The secrecy of the summary, however, had not been lifted until now, which is when the Police have reported these arrests.