Police detain former PSOE deputy Juan Bernardo Fuentes for extortion plot in the Canary Islands

Former PSOE deputy Juan Bernardo Fuentes, in May 2019. Carlos de Saá (EFE)

The National Police has arrested at nine in the morning this Monday in Puerto del Rosario (Fuerteventura) the former deputy for the PSOE Juan Bernardo Fuentes as a result of the investigations into the Mediator case, an operation that investigates the collection of bribes

extortion in the management of aid for food products, and for which he was being investigated, according to

and police sources and the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands have confirmed this newspaper.

The arrest occurred at the request of the investigating judge of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

Throughout Monday, the security forces have searched the address of the former parliamentarian in the Majorera town, who will go to court on Wednesday.

Investigation sources place Juan Bernardo Fuentes at the center of the alleged plot.

The former deputy is the latest in a list of defendants who have already been arrested in connection with the alleged plot, including several businessmen.

All of them are being investigated for bribery, money laundering, forgery, belonging to a criminal organization and influence peddling.

The organization allegedly engaged in extorting companies in the livestock sector in exchange for avoiding health inspections or speeding up or unlocking European aid files.

Last week the Police arrested the former Director General of Livestock of the Government of the Canary Islands, Taishet Fuentes —nephew of the former parliamentarian—, and the retired Civil Guard Major General Francisco Espinosa Navas, as well as 10 other people.

All were released on Thursday after appearing before the judge of Santa Cruz de Tenerife who is investigating the case,

The detainee today began the legislature as general director of Livestock.

The departure of the Minister of Economy of the regional Executive, Carolina Darias, to the Government of Spain (to become first Minister of Territorial Policy and Public Function and later Minister of Health) led to a dance of chairs: Elena Máñez, deputy in Congress , replaced her in the Ministry.

Her seat was assumed by Juan Bernardo Fuentes.

His position in the general direction was assumed by his nephew, who was fired in June.

Juan Bernardo Fuentes resigned last Tuesday as a national deputy after the arrest of his nephew, Taishet Fuentes, and after learning of his possible involvement in the plot, with which he has lost his status as a registered office.

According to investigations, Juan Bernardo Fuentes used a seat in Congress to win over businessmen through visits and subsequent meals.

The collection of the alleged bites occurred throughout the legislature.

Its existence was revealed in court by Marco Antonio Navarro Tacoronte, who appears in several operations as an intermediary and who has provided investigators with documentary evidence, including conversations recorded with sound and images from several of these meetings.

In the investigation of the case, it has been proven that Taishet Fuentes also participated in meetings with her uncle Juan Bernardo Fuentes and other businessmen investigated in Madrid, some meetings that frequently ended in the Sombras hostess club, according to the newspaper Canarias

.

The cost of these parties was around 3,000 euros and was paid by the businessmen, as a first payment to obtain favors from the Fuentes.

Two of the detainees, the Catalan couple who own the Canarian dairy company Leche Sandra, Esteban Banús and Inmaculada Roca, arrested in Gran Canaria this week for their alleged involvement in the case and who were released on Thursday without precautionary measures, claimed on Sunday that the right to the presumption of innocence is respected.

In a letter, they stressed that "parallel trials that are detrimental to the reputation of the people affected should not take place, the effects of which are difficult to repair."