The Civil Guard, within the framework of Operation UNION, has arrested a total of nine people on the islands of Lanzarote and Gran Canaria this Monday morning for various crimes related to corruption and urban planning. Among those arrested are two councilors and two officials from the Arrecife City Council, a former President of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, as well as several businessmen and intermediaries.
Agents of the Central Operative Unit of the Civil Guard are searching the premises of the Arrecife City Council and its Technical Office, an office and several architecture studios, as well as the homes of some of those arrested and the cell that one of them, Dimas Martín, occupies in the Tahiche Penitentiary Center, where he is serving a sentence for other events.
The detainees are accused of, among other things, several crimes of bribery, administrative prevarication, urban prevarication, influence peddling, negotiations and activities prohibited to public officials, illegal exactions and against land management.
According to a press release issued by the Civil Guard, "the investigation has made it possible to dismantle an important organized network dedicated to collecting allegedly illegal commissions from businessmen whose economic interests 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 belonging to the organization, such as the payment of invoices for services provided to the administration, awarding of contracts, granting of licenses, etc."
One year of investigation
The network, which has been under investigation by the Civil Guard for more than a year, has been dismantled as a result of the collection of one of these commissions by one of the intermediaries of the organization, who has been arrested "in flagrante delicto", according to the agents, seizing nearly 100,000 euros in cash.
The Civil Guard is also investigating an alleged manipulation of the award of the advance of the General Urban Planning Plan of Arrecife.
The operation is being carried out by members of the Urban Crime Group of the Central Operative Unit of the Civil Guard, under the direction of the Investigating Court No. 5 of Arrecife and the Prosecutor's Office for the Environment and Urban Planning of Las Palmas.
The investigation is under summary secrecy and remains open, so future arrests and/or charges are not ruled out.