The managing director of Canal Gestión Lanzarote, Gerardo Díaz, is one of the fifteen people arrested this Tuesday in the "Tosca" operation, which has taken place in Melilla and has also left detainees in Madrid, Malaga and the Canary Islands. Díaz has been in charge of the company that manages water in Lanzarote since June 2013, although his arrest would be related to his previous position as managing director of Hispanagua. That company, also belonging to the Canal de Isabel II group, is among those investigated in the new operation carried out by the UCO.
According to La Voz de Lanzarote, the arrest of Gerardo Díaz would have arisen from the searches that were carried out in February 2014 in several companies, including the headquarters of Hispanagua in Madrid, as well as several councils of Melilla and private homes. This Tuesday, the Civil Guard explained in a statement that "after analyzing the documentation seized in those last searches, the existence of several people who fraudulently managed public funds in collusion with officials, public officials and managers of different companies was detected, vitiating contracting processes and pursuing personal or business interests instead of the general interest."
Thus, according to the UCO, "the investigated companies awarded the contracts would have benefited economically from these diversions of funds and contract awards, also detecting the obtaining of benefits by some of the officials and public officials".
Now, a year after that wave of searches and arrests, a new phase of the operation has been developed, leaving a dozen detainees in Melilla, three in Madrid, one in Malaga and another in Lanzarote.
"Diversion of public funds and other acts of corruption"
Operation Tosca is a continuation of another one initiated in 2013 in Melilla, under the name of Operation Opera. At that time, in an investigation for crimes against public health and money laundering, various documentation was seized that, according to the Civil Guard, "evidenced the diversion of public funds and other acts of corruption, in procedures for awarding public contracts within the autonomous city of Melilla".
That year the first arrests took place in that autonomous city, including several senior officials. Shortly after, the UCO took charge of the investigation, which was expanded in February 2014 with those records that have now led to new arrests, including that of the managing director of Canal Gestión Lanzarote.
Although the investigation is in charge of a Court of Melilla, in principle Gerardo Díaz was not going to be transferred to that city, since it was planned that he would be brought before the Arrecife duty court.
Díaz, who has been holding different positions in companies of the Canal de Isabel II group for decades, was managing director of Hispanagua between 2006 and 2013. It was shortly after leaving that position to come to Lanzarote when the searches took place in his previous company, which have now led to his arrest.
