The judge releases the former PSOE deputy accused of belonging to an extortion plot

The magistrate of the Investigating Court 4 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, María de los Ángeles Lorenzo-Cáceres Farizo, has decreed this Wednesday to release the former PSOE deputy and former director general of Livestock, Juan Bernardo Fuentes Curbelo, whom she accuses of bribery , falsehood, money laundering, influence peddling and organized group, as reported by the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands.

The prosecutor has not requested prison for Fuentes, not detecting a flight risk or destruction of evidence.

Fuentes Curbelo was arrested on Monday.

The former deputy is the last of a list of 12 investigated or charged who have already been arrested in connection with the alleged plot, which also includes several businessmen from Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Madrid and Valencia.

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.

Within this plot, Marco Antonio Navarro Tacoronte represented, according to investigations, the mediation task between the former deputy and former director general of Livestock, Juan Bernardo Fuentes Curbelo —nicknamed Tito Berni— and two different groups of businessmen.

The first of them are the peninsulars interested in extending their business to the Canary Islands Special Zone (ZEC).

The second would be made up of island cheese makers and farmers pending receipt of subsidies, inspections or sanctions.

Companies located in the ZEC Zone have a reduced tax rate of 4%, although it depends on job creation.

In addition, everything that is invested in R&D is deducted between 45% and 75% up to an investment of three million.

the former deputy of the PSOE Juan Bernardo Fuentes and the mediator Marco Antonio Navarro Tacoronte.

Fuentes Curbelo's nephew, Taishet Fuentes Gutiérrez, was the "immediate subordinate" of his uncle, whom he succeeded as general director of Livestock, he took over from whom he was removed in June.

These two people, the investigation maintains, "would have sufficient capacity to make businessmen believe that their aspirations would come true, as long as they assume a series of payments."

The top was completed by Division General of the Civil Guard Francisco Espinosa Navas, who supposedly used his rank and the position he held as Head of the Las Palmas Civil Guard Command “in order to convey to the aforementioned businessmen high possibilities of management and success in their projects, also in exchange for the corresponding and illegitimate commissions”.

The plot was in force from September 2020 until a year later, "specifically when businessmen began to notice that despite having made the required payments, they did not see the promised result prosper."

In this sense, the investigation indicates that in this period there were several occasions in which commissions were claimed from businessmen —always through Navarro Tacoronte— "in exchange for the project or desire to which each one aspired."

In general, the "political part of the plot" received payments of 5,000 euros by deposit or transfer in favor of one of the Associations of which the former deputy is president, the Vega de Tetir Sports Association.

Investigators report in the case of General Espinosa "multiple payments" in restaurants, hotels, flights,

The summary of the case, which is based largely on the conversations, photos, audios and videos that Antonio Navarro Tacoronte kept on his mobile, shows the use that both Juan Bernardo Fuentes and Taishet Fuentes made of prostitutes, who paid through Hispano Robysa SLU, a company used as a front to camouflage the alleged bribes in the Mediator case.