The former general director of Livestock of the Government of the Canary Islands, Taishet Fuentes, when going to testify before the judge who instructs the 'Mediator case', this Thursday. Miguel Barreto (EFE)
The former socialist deputy Juan Bernardo Fuentes Curbelo, alias Tito Berni, and his nephew, Taishet Fuentes Gutiérrez, have taken advantage of their right not to testify in the appearance before the judge of Santa Cruz de Tenerife investigating the Mediator case. The summons was related to the investigation of a crime of revealing secrets, which is added to those already attributed to both investigated (bribery, falsehood, money laundering, influence peddling and belonging to an organized criminal group). Both have agreed, yes, only to submit to the calligraphic test that the instructor had commissioned, as reported by the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands.
The investigation of the case maintains that the former socialist deputy Juan Bernardo Fuentes Curbelo used his condition as general director of livestock first and parliamentarian in the Congress of Deputies of Madrid from February 2020 to promise entrepreneurs the possibility of avoiding health inspections, expedite and unblock European aid files or facilitate the achievement of contracts. Everything, "in exchange for a consideration", according to the magistrate of the Court of Instruction Number 4 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in charge of the case. The intermediary was Antonio Navarro Tacoronte, who was in charge of attracting and managing the entrepreneurs.
These activities allegedly place Fuentes Curbelo at the center of a plot uncovered by the National Police and the Civil Guard, which led on February 14 to the arrest of 12 people, including Fuentes Curbelo himself; his nephew Taishet Fuentes Gutierrez; retired Civil Guard General Francisco Espinosa Navas, and nine businessmen from the Canary Islands, Valencia and Madrid. The general was the only one who remained in jail until May 4.
Taishet Fuentes was the first to arrive at the Palace of Justice on Wednesday, accompanied by his lawyer, around nine o'clock, according to Europa Press. His uncle – also with his lawyer and a person he trusted – arrived shortly before 10 o'clock. In their case, both at the entrance and at the exit they have met with an escrache by the Justice officials, who are on strike.
It is the second time that the Fuentes appear before magistrate María de los Ángeles Lorenzo-Cáceres. In his statement on February 22, Tito Berni denied being part of the leadership of the alleged plot. "It is usual for many businessmen to come to the Congress of Deputies to expose their problem," he told the investigating judge. "I don't know," he later replied to the magistrate when asked about his membership in this gang. For his part, Fuentes Gutiérrez, had declared on February 16 before the head of the Court of Instruction Number 4 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife that he was "used" by Navarro Tacoronte, the alleged 'mediator', while completely distancing himself from the alleged plot.
For this Thursday were also cited the two charges of the Government of the Canary Islands that appear as investigated in the case for the alleged commission of a crime of revelation of secrets and prevarication – the Deputy Minister of the Primary Sector, Álvaro de la Bárcena, and the head of Service of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Margarita González. But the judge postponed her statement to July 12.
The daughters of 'El Drones'
Marta and Arantxa Suárez, the daughters of the investigated businessman José Suárez Esteve, nicknamed by Navarro Tacoronte as El Drones, ratified their father's version on Wednesday and assured the judge that Antonio Navarro Tacoronte defrauded them of about 46,000 euros. Judge María de los Ángeles Lorenzo-Cáceres cited both investigated after agents of the Internal Affairs Service of the Civil Guard pointed out in one of their reports that, in January 2021, Marta received a WhatsApp message from the Mediator with the numbering of a bank account that her father also received.
According to this report, which Europa Press accessed, Suárez responded to that message with a photograph of a computer screen in which there was a "proof of transfer of the same day" to an account that, according to the database of the Tax Agency, would be owned by a couple now investigated in the plot.
It should be remembered that before the Canarian court José Suárez Esteve himself declared as investigated, who explained that Navarro Tacoronte offered him to set up a company in a free zone through a company that was dedicated to it, and assured him that this would reduce the payment of taxes and could import the drones. As he stated, Navarro Tacoronte explained that an initial investment of 100,000 euros would have to be made as capital of the company.
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