Former Director General of Livestock, Taishet Fuentes, and a Civil Guard general arrested for alleged fraud

The National Police, in collaboration with the Civil Guard, has arrested nine people accused of the crimes of bribery and influence peddling, including the former Director General of Livestock of the Government of the Canary Islands, Taishet Fuentes, and the retired Civil Guard General Francisco Javier Espinosa Navas.

Sources close to the investigation have indicated to EFE that this is an ongoing operation in which alleged irregularities in the management of European subsidies linked to food products are being investigated.

Agents of the Provincial Brigade of the Judicial Police of Tenerife, in collaboration with the Internal Affairs unit of the Civil Guard, are carrying out this operation, in which, for the moment, nine people have been arrested and thirteen searches are planned on several Canary Islands, as well as in other parts of the Peninsula.

General Espinosa was head of the Las Palmas command and is currently retired. Investigation sources have told EFE that the crimes he is accused of are limited to the years 2020 and 2021 for alleged membership of a criminal organization, fraud and bribery.

In those years, Espinosa was involved in the GAR SI Sahel project, which trains agents from countries in that African area and is coordinated by the European Union, so he did not depend on the organic structure of the Civil Guard.

For his part, Taishet Fuentes was removed from his duties as Director of Livestock of the Canary Islands last June due to loss of confidence.

He currently heads the PSOE candidacy for Mayor of Antigua in the upcoming elections in May.

PSOE deputy in Congress for Las Palmas Juan Bernardo Fuentes, uncle of Taishet Fuentes and his predecessor as Director General of Livestock of the Canary Islands, is also being investigated.

The operation has been ordered by the Investigating Court number 4 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in coordination with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office.