This is how Mediator operated: the former PSOE deputy accused of corruption received other members of the plot in Congress

Former PSOE deputy Juan Bernardo Fuentes Curbelo, arrested as the alleged ringleader of the corruption scheme dismantled in the

, not only used his status as a parliamentarian for his supposedly illegal activities.

He also used the facilities of the Congress of Deputies to impress the businessmen from whom he allegedly demanded bribes, as stated in the summary of the case to which EL PAÍS has had access.

The police reports detail that the premises of the Lower House were the place for a first contact that continued with meals in restaurants and parties in hotels in which prostitutes participated, and which were paid for by businessmen.

"In these first contacts, there are multiple indications of deliveries of cash to the deputy," the researchers collect in a report dated February 6, prior to the first arrests of those involved.

The head of the Investigating Court 4 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, María de los Ángeles Lorenzo-Cáceres, who is investigating the case, agreed on Wednesday to release Fuentes Curbelo, whom she maintains accused of the crimes of bribery, document forgery, money laundering of capital, influence peddling and belonging to an organized criminal group.

More information

The judge holds the Prosecutor's Office responsible for the provisional release of the former PSOE deputy accused of corruption

Fuentes Curbelo - who within the plot was called by the aliases of

and

- agreed to the seat on February 4, 2020, replacing the current Minister of Economy of the Canary Islands Government, Elena Máñez.

Until then, he had served as General Director of Livestock of the Government of the Canary Islands, although in two previous legislatures he had already been a deputy.

On February 4, when his involvement in the plot became known, he had to leave his seat.

The investigation considers Fuentes Curbelo "one of the leaders of the criminal organization" dismantled and places him, specifically, "at the head" of what the police reports call the "political branch."

The former national deputy of the PSOE Juan Bernardo Fuentes together with his lawyer Raúl Miranda, left the Provincial Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife on Wednesday after declaring for the 'Mediator case' before the judge who has released him with charges.

Ramon de la Rocha (EFE)

In that position, the already ex-deputy allegedly helped the businessmen who came to him to "thrive in their businesses, receive subsidies, direct awards or obtain the file of any disciplinary file."

The first step to achieve this was the payment of 5,000 euros to a sports association of which Fuentes Curbelo was a leader, add the police reports.

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

“To introduce the businessmen in the plot, meetings were organized with the leaders of the organization.

Part of these meetings consisted of visiting Fuentes in the Congress of Deputies”, indicates a report detailing the existence of at least three of these visits.

The first of which there is evidence - the confessed mediator of the plot, Marco Antonio Navarro, kept photographs of those meetings on his mobile phone - took place on February 3, 2021. In addition to Navarro and the then deputy, the businessman José Santiago Suárez Esteve, with whom the politician was photographed inside the building next to a poster of the Socialist Parliamentary Group.

On the right, the deputy Juan Bernardo Fuentes, in two images in Congress together with one of the businessmen allegedly involved in the 'Mediator case', in an image incorporated into the summary.

The second is from April 14 of the same year, and the deputy and Navarro again participate, among others.

That same day, the report includes images of a party allegedly held with prostitutes in the rooms of the hotel near the Congress where Fuentes Curbelo stayed when he carried out his parliamentary functions.

The last visit to the lower house took place two weeks later, again with the deputy and the mediator present, this time with two businessmen, Raúl Gómez and Alberto Montesdeoca.

Once again, all of them were photographed in front of the poster of the socialist group.

The summary makes continuous references to payments of up to 2,500 euros for the payment of prostitutes, and there are images both in the Sombras hostess club in Madrid, and in hotel rooms.

Also in the chats, the mediator used to cajole Fuentes Curbelo with hiring a company.

"Alberto [Montesdeoca, one of the captured businessmen] pays," Navarro wrote to him on March 23, 2021. "Without any delay," explains the summary, he responds by requesting a list of sex workers: "Go through the catalog."

Next, the mediator sends him "photographs of prostitutes."

At the Civil Guard headquarters

The images recovered in the investigation also reveal visits by alleged members of the plot to another public building, the headquarters of the General Directorate of the Civil Guard, in Madrid.

In this case, the person who provided the past was General Francisco Espinosa Navas, alias

y

, whom the investigators also place at the top of the organization as the alleged leader of the so-called "business branch."

General Espinosa, the only alleged member of the network that the judge has sent to pretrial detention, had been the head of the Las Palmas command, although at that time he was in retirement after having held a position in the GAR project -SI Sahel, a project financed by the European Commission to strengthen security in Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Chad.

In his case, he is under suspicion for the award of four public contracts in which he allegedly could have participated.

"Espinosa would use both his status as division general and director of the GAR-SI Sahel project as well as the position he once held as head of the Las Palmas Civil Guard Command and his relations, in order to transmit to the businessmen of the plot has high possibilities of management and success in their projects, in exchange for the corresponding commissions”, it is stated in the police reports.

According to the mediator, the general was "much more prudent" than the former Socialist deputy "when speaking and also when receiving 'gifts' or asking for them."

However, this did not prevent him from also receiving members of the plot at the main headquarters of the Civil Guard.

On the left, Marco Antonio Navarro, the alleged mediator of the plot, together with a businessman during his visit to General Espinosa at the General Directorate of the Civil Guard, in Madrid, in an image incorporated into the summary.

Thus, the summary contains photographs of presumed members of the organization, taken at the premises of the armed Institute on different days.

The first, on October 21, 2020. That day, the general sends an audio message to the mediator three minutes before noon: “Antonio, the address of my office is 110 Guzmán El Bueno street. Julio [supposedly the guard civilian that the general had assigned as a driver] will be waiting for you at the door to get you inside, so don't worry, I'll wait for you there whenever you want.

A hug".

The interlocutor's response was immediate: “Let's go there, my general.

We are taking the car out of the

”.

Less than a month later, on November 12, the mediator made a second visit with another businessman.

According to a police report, the fact that the businessman's first meeting with the general took place in said facilities sought to "print veracity and consistency to the capabilities of the criminal group."

That visit was secretly recorded by the mediator on whose mobile the sound file was found, as well as photographs of several of the participants next to the image of the patron saint of the Civil Guard in the chapel of the facilities.

On February 2, 2021, another visit by the mediator with a new businessman to the General Directorate of the Civil Guard took place.

On this occasion, Navarro takes a picture with his companion in the main courtyard of the installation.

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