Tag: guardia civil

Latest Gran Canaria News, Views & Sunshine

Menas Case: Foundation Siglo XXI directors allegedly filed false invoices, unrealistic expenses and repeatedly drew funds from ATMs, meant for the care of migrant children, even charging botox facial treatments and posh restaurant bills to foundation debit cards

A comprehensive analysis conducted by Group I of the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) of the National Police yielded scandalous results, writes Spanish language daily Canarias7, regarding the alleged irregular use of the public funds intended for the care of unaccompanied minors, by the suspected to have been perpetrated by centres managed by the Foundation Social Response Siglo XXI on Gran Canaria and Lanzarote. In this case, driven by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, investigators discovered that the director of the Guiniguada centre charged the NGO responsible for €1,500 worth of beauty treatments and €1,113 for bills at top restaurants including Vinófilos, El Vasco de Vegueta, and Triciclo.

 
 

 

Centre-Right Pact Between Regionalists (CC) And Resident Conservatives (PPAV) Returns Marco Aurelio Perez As Southern Mayor

The conservative Partido Popular-Agrupación de Vecinos (PP-AV) and the right of centre regionalist Coalición Canaria (CC) have this Thursday signed a local government pact that will shape the future of the southern Gran Canaria tourism municipality of San Bartolomé de Tirajana. The alliance, dubbed a “Pact for Stability and Socioeconomic Progress of San Bartolomé Tirajana”, represents 60% of the votes cast in the municipality’s recent local elections, emphasised the  mayor-elect, Marco Aurelio Pérez (PP-AV), who returns for the third time to lead the local council responsible for some of the most important tourism areas on the island, including Maspalomas, Playa del Inglés and San Agustín.

 
 

 

Local Government Coalition Agreement Maspalomas and the South of Gran Canaria

A governing coalition pact has been finalised in San Bartolomé de Tirajana. The Popular Party–Agrupación de Vecinos (PP-AV) conservative residents party is to join forces with regionalist centre-right Coalición Canaria (CC) to govern the main tourist municipality on Gran Canaria for the next four years. Marco Aurelio Pérez will serve as mayor for the entire four-year term, and the Popular Party will take charge of Employment, Sports, Roads and Infrastructure, and Human Resources, among other areas. The regionalists, led by Alejandro Marichal, will oversee Urban Planning, Economy and Finance, and Tourism as their main departments.

 
 

 

Storm Óscar Latest: Government of the Canary Islands Declares Rain Alert for Western Islands and Gran Canaria

A storm system, dubbed Óscar, has formed over the last few days over the mid-north Atlantic, unusual for this time of year, and has led to concern from meteorologists and journalists as it passes south of the Azores, its tail should reach The Canary Islands, before the system heads northeast towards mainland Spain.  Advisory warnings have been issued in expectation of heavy rainfall, primarily in the Western Isles of the Canary Islands Archipelago, though some rainfall is also expected to reach Gran Canaria over the next couple of days.  It seems unlikely that any major consequences will stem from the bad weather, however these things can be unpredictable and so every precaution is taken to ensure people are informed and kept safe.

 
 

 

Foundation Investigated for Alleged Mismanagement of Public Funds Meant for Care of Unaccompanied Migrant Minors

The 7th Investigative Court of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has opened a preliminary investigation into the Social Response Foundation Siglo XXI and four of its directors. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office in Las Palmas filed a complaint against them, alleging crimes that could include forgery of commercial documents, mismanagement, and embezzlement of public funds. The investigation aims to determine whether this nonprofit organisation, and its officials, could have misused public funds intended for the care of unaccompanied migrant minors, during the migration crisis of 2020 that was precipitated by the pandemic confinement on the islands, leading to a build up of arrivals having to be assessed and cared for by the Canary Islands Regional Government, using hotels left empty due to the lack of tourism. The estimated amount involved in the alleged misuse stands at around €12.5 million between 2020 and 2022 on Gran Canaria alone.

 
 

 

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A fishing boat loaded with three tons of cocaine intercepted south of the Canary Islands

Officials from the Spanish Tax Agency’s Customs Surveillance Service, working as part of a joint operation with agents from the Policia Nacional and Guardia Civil, in waters south of the Canary Islands, last week, intercepted a fishing boat loaded with more than 2,900 kilos of cocaine hidden in one of its fuel tanks, arresting all five crew members. Operation ‘Capirote-Piteas-Acerico‘, led to the boarding of the 20-meter-long fishing vessel, named ‘AKT 1’, on the afternoon of April 13, some 300 nautical miles south of the Canary Islands archipelago, transferring to to the Port of Las Palmas on 16th of April. The operation was directed and coordinated by the National High Court Anti-Drugs Prosecutions Office.
The result of international collaboration, including exchange of information between the MAOC-N (Center for Analysis and Atlantic operations) and CITCO (Intelligence Center Against Terrorism and Organised Crime) led investigators from the Customs Surveillance Service, the National Police and the Civil Guard to determine the possible involvement of a vessel suspected of illicit drug trafficking from South America.

Spanish Customs seize "African Route" drugs transport
Spanish customs officers (aduanas) seize 3 tons of suspected drugs from vessel pretending to be fishing the "African Route", and taken, via Arguineguín, to Puerto de las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Read More: https://thecanarynews.com/2022/04/a-fishing-boat-loaded-with-three-tons-of-cocaine-intercepted-south-of-the-canary-islands/
Posted by The Canary News on Tuesday, April 19, 2022

 
 

 

Hidden along the route of the Sub-Saharan fishing grounds
An air and seaborne operation, established by the Tax Agency’s Deputy Directorate of Customs Surveillance resulted in the locating and boarding of the fishing boat by the ‘Cóndor’ patrol boat, which was heading north, camouflaged among the usual fishing boats that navigate close to the sub-Saharan fishing grounds. At the time of boarding the fishing boat was discovered to be transporting a significant number of bundles of the type usually used for cocaine trafficking, so the five crew members, four of Turkish nationality and one Georgian citizen, were immediately arrested.
Complex boarding and navigation conditions
The navigation and boarding conditions were very complicated, due to bad sea conditions, with sustained strong northerly winds topping 40 knots and gusts of up to 60. Despite these difficulties, the fast performance of the ‘Cóndor ‘ and its crew prevented any possible transshipment of the narcotics to other vessels, which would have compromised the detection of the illicit cargo.
During the subsequent transfer to port it was necessary to alert the Salvamento Maritimo (Maritime Rescue) due to concerns of a machine failure on the fishing boat, which was described as ‘substandard’ (meaning that it does not meet basic international safety and navigation standards) due to the engine being in very poor condition, to the point that it was feared a fire could break out on board, leading to the necessity for a technical stop at the southern most port of Arguineguín (Gran Canaria) to check the status of the vessel before finally heading up to Las Palmas, on the north of the island.

Operation ‘Capirote’ is the first arrest to be carried out by the patrol boat ‘Cóndor’ hardly a month since it was commissioned in the Canary Islands. This modern, fast,  43 meter patrol boat with a crew of 14, was assigned to the Canary Islands Customs Surveillance unit on March 15 to reinforce strategic operations in tackling drug trafficking in the Atlantic, and key entry points such as the Canary Islands archipelago.
The detainees, the boat, the drugs and the police proceedings will all be placed at the disposal of the Central Court of Investigation, acting under the auspices of the National High Court, the first proceedings to have been carried out in this manner by the Courts of Instruction in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
This operation results from efforts by the Spanish Customs Agency (Aduanas) and State Security Forces working with various official bodies in the prevention of drug trafficking along what is known as the ‘African Route’, known for being used by fishing vessels that receive narcotic substances in the middle of the Atlantic for their subsequent introduction onto the European continent, using the African coastal route to go unnoticed among the incessant fishing traffic throughout the area
 

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La Alcaldesa, hoping to rise again, wants to wipe away the alleged “black cloud” for which she is still under investigation

La Alcaldesa, the still-serving Mogán mayor, currently presiding over Gran Canaria’s southwestern town hall, has been under investigation for years, for one thing or another, and arrested at least twice while working for the good people of Mogán, though currently she and her alleged co-conspirators do appear rather bullish, having once more escaped prosecution, this time on a technicality, following multiple allegations of electoral fraud, and other crimes, stemming from the Mogán local elections of 2015 and 2019. The events that took place both before and during the 2015 ballot were “prescribed”, meaning that too much time (more than 5 years) had passed to allow for prosecution under Spanish law (a time limit based on half the maximum penalty for the crime), while the investigation into the events surrounding the 2019 local elections, was provisionally dismissed, shelved for the moment, due to insufficient evidence of a crime.  By no means a win, but enough to motivate a desire to try to wipe away the damage caused, as she lines herself up to stand again in 2023, this time perhaps under an alternative political banner.
Based on the continuing investigative work of Ivan Suarez, writing for CanariasAhoraImage courtesy of Mogán Town Hall, Supplemental reporting, Timon .:.

 
 

 

Several judicial investigations into the mayor’s activities, and other members of her team, however, continue. At a press conference, a couple of weeks back, on March 25, just one week after the case was provisionally dismissed, La Alcaldesa, Onalia Bueno, (whose party call themselves Citizens for Change – CIUCA) expressed her desire to dissipate the “black cloud” that, she said, has settled over her since she has been a politician. However, the incumbent Mogán mayoress continues, at least for the time being, to be under scrutiny. Court of Instruction 3, in San Bartolomé de Tirajana, last week presented four different lines of enquiry to the court administration offices. Each had been separated, from this wide-ranging electoral fraud investigation, to be studied independently, based on evidence gathered by the Guardia Civil, following on from their scrutiny of the suspected plot, having presented the facts uncovered after CIUCA had gained control of the town hall administration.
These four lines of inquiry respond to the four reports, issued by judicial police, which appear to implicate La Alcaldesa and which, in the opinion of investigators, may constitute various crimes (prevarication, embezzlement, bribery, illegal appointments, influence peddling, disobedience to judicial authority and infidelity in the custody of documents).
The investigating judge, Francisco Javier Ramírez de Verger, decided to break down the legal case, so as to speed up proceedings and avoid delays. “These are not related crimes, although they may be tangentially related to the investigation,” he stated in a judgement dated July 28, last year. That resolution was appealed by one of the defendants, businessman Luis Oller (Aguas de Arguineguín), whom the judicial police point to as the likely financier of the alleged vote-buying plot, and beneficiary of a mediation process that was allegedly rigged by the town council led by Bueno and her crew.
The appeal was, however, dismissed, and division of the procedures was confirmed. Last week, a Justice Administration lawyer issued official documents which have now been submitted to the offices of the San Bartolomé de Tirajana courts, which must now distribute the four cases among the various investigating courts of the judicial district, according to established norms.
One important line of investigation focuses specifically on Luis Oller, president of one of the companies that operate the main water supply service for the Mogán area (a company noted for its repeated failure to supply water safe enough for human or animal consumption, or even for cooking or brushing one’s teeth with, over recent months and years). The Guardia Civil identified Oller as the presumed financier of the alleged conspiracy which swept Bueno to power, after several cheques, drawn in his name, were discovered to have been cashed in the days running up to the 2015 Mogán Town Council elections, namely by CIUCA official Salvador Álvarez, one of Bueno’s closest collaborators in that campaign. The investigators expose, in one of their reports, Álvarez’s repeated “obstinacy” in favouring Oller “in all municipal areas” and focus their suspicions on a mediation process, ostensibly to resolve a dispute that the businessman had had with the municipal corporation for several years. That process appeared to the investigators to have been rigged, leading to two of the lawyers advising, who’d expressed their reluctance to accept the proposed agreement, even having been removed from the procedure to pay Oller public money, thought to be in return for alleged favours to and by CIUCA during the 2015 election campaign.
Another of the investigations focuses on the appointments of eight public employees to the Mogán Town Council, and then increases in their specific remunerations. According to the Guardia Civil, the mayoress allegedly granted jobs and bonuses to these public servants, some of whom are directly related to the mayor, and who likely collaborated in that same campaign for Ciuca as “vote catchers”. Some bonuses were subsequently judged in court to be “arbitrary and lacking in legitimacy” and were ordered annulled. Among the testimonies sent by Court of Instruction number 3, in San Bartolomé de Tirajana, to the offices of the court, is a statement made before the judge by one Francisco Javier Bueno, the mayor’s own cousin and a beneficiary of these improper salary increases on two occasions, as he himself acknowledged in that appearance. In a letter, explaining her abstention from the vote to allow the pay increases, due to the presence of her relative, the mayor took the opportunity to also state that this bonus was “more than deserved”.
Mencey & Bueno in Mogan just before their arrests
Judicial police have also detected signs of embezzlement and prevarication in several contracts awarded to the mayor’s current Urban Planning advisor, Raico Guerra, and his family’s company, Arpiplan, between 2015 and 2020 worth a total of €276,000 in public funds. In one of the monographic reports that have led to the opening of this case, investigators detected a “manifest intention” by the Ciuca government, to financially benefit Guerra and his entourage, who then became the sole contractors to the Town Council overseeing veterinary services during that time. The Guardia Civil has also emphasised that he was appointed urban advisor to the Council despite his “limited” technical knowledge (having only a Basic General Education) and that, two days before his appointment, the Consistory had signed a contract for External advice on urban matters with one Jesús Romera Espeja, an architect and urban planner who has held various positions under the Canarian Coalition (CC), to whom Bueno has been allying herself, among them that of Deputy Minister of Territorial Policy under Fernando Clavijo when the CC was in power, as part of the Canary Islands Regional Government.
The last line of investigation concerns events that took place in the period immediately following the arrest of Mayor Onalia Bueno, alongside her councillors Mencey Navarro (Urban Planning and First Deputy Mayor) and Tania del Pino Alonso (Councillor for Social Services), on September 17, 2020. One day earlier, the judge had authorised Guardia Civil to enter, the Mogán municipal town hall offices, in Arguineguín and Pueblo de Mogán, for the search and seizure of documents and computer files, as a result of the investigations being carried out by judicial police, on suspicion of the existence of “objective, accessible and verifiable” evidence that could corroborate the participation of members of the local corporation in actions presumed to constitute an electoral crime against the public administration, a crime against the people of Mogán.
After investigators gained access, to monitor the town hall computer systems, the mayor and the first deputy mayor subsequently ordered their head of the IT service to disconnect the investigators from the systems.  This was contrary to the legal permits and court orders that had been given to the Guardia Civil during the operation, which allowed them to access, search and monitor the digital files stored there. That instruction from La Alcaldesa, is evidenced in WhastApp messages and would later be reversed by Navarro, and is the focus of a separate investigation into the administration for an alleged crime against the justice department.
Appeal against the order to provisionally dismiss the 2019 electoral fraud investigation
The order to dismiss the 2019 electoral crimes case has been appealed by one of the ten or so defendants charged and under investigation, José Monzón. He is known locally in the municipality as Pepe ‘el japonés’, and was charged, along with various others, as a result of a recording in which he can be heard telling the conservative Partido Popular (PP) ex-mayor of Mogán, Paco González, that during the 2015 electoral campaign he, El Japonés, had collaborated with CIUCA to gather 383 votes, in exchange of money and favours. “We have to play dirty,” he said in that conversation with Bueno’s predecessor, after explaining in detail the mechanics used to buy the votes that helped swing the election in her favour.  González too has faced accusations of vote-buying in the past, but never on this scale.
Monzón’s defence lawyers appealed the judicial decision to dismiss the alleged 2019 electoral crimes, because, in their opinion, the dismissal should have been definitive and not just provisional. In other words, they insist that there should no longer be any possibility of reopening the 2019 case, considering it the same as the alleged 2015 crimes, which are now prescribed and can no longer be pursued. The Prosecutor’s Office continues to oppose the appeal.  A shadow remains over Mogán.

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42 year old arrested in Puerto Rico de Gran Canaria on suspicion of setting fire to neighbour’s car

The Guardia Civil Main Post in Puerto Rico de Gran Canaria, Mogán, arrested a 42-year-old last March 11, allegedly the perpetrator of the crimes of arson and damage having set fire to their neighbour’s car causing damage to a residential complex belonging to a Community of the Property Owners in the town. The events occurred during the early hours of February 26, when the Puerto Rico Civil Guard were alerted to an incident at a duplex located on Calle Valencia, where a vehicle was on fire.

 
 

 

 
At the scene they documented a complaint (denuncia) and carried out an investigation of the facts. Subsequently, the complainant pressed charges, which led the president of the community, to also report the alleged forcing of a door into a room belonging to the community of apartments.
The allegations were directly related, and so the police made inquiries based on a technical visual inspection of the vehicle, in conjunction with the appearance of possible witnesses, and analysis of images provided by the community itself.
With all this, it was possible to determine that the perpetrator of the vehicle fire had also forced the doors of the community room, and that the suspect’s family lives in the house next door to the apartment where the car was set on fire and that they were in the family home on the weekend in question, allowing investigators to verify how the suspect allegedly forced the door of the community room and later caused the fire, setting light to the gasoline tank, which damaged the rear of the vehicle.
Differences between the family of the alleged perpetrator and the community of owners appear to have been the motive behind the arson attack.
Thankfully there were no major repercussions or damage to the property, and nobody was injured, due to the rapid action of the Guardia Civil patrol and later to the local Fire Brigade, given that the burning vehicle was parked in a private car park in front of the house, just in front of its only entrance, which could have prevented residents from leaving if the flames had spread to the dwelling itself.
Once the police report was completed, the alleged perpetrator was arrested, and placed at the disposal of the Duty Magistrates Court of San Bartolomé de Tirajana.

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Puerto Bello complex claims €1million in damages from Canary Islands Government

The owners of the Puerto Bello apartment complex, in the popular tourist town of Puerto Rico de Gran Canaria, are claiming nearly one million euros from the Canary Islands Government for damages caused by some of a group of unaccompanied migrant minors who were being sheltered there for several months, ostensibly under the guardianship of the Canary Islands Regional Autonomous Executive.
Featured Image: Puerto Bello damage, Image by @Rafaleonortega/CanariasAhora
 

 
 

 
#WeCrossMountains

According to the owners, some of the damage stemmed from the disturbances that took place on February 8 2021, which were allegedly organised by a man who had falsely claimed to be a minor.  Sources from the Ministry of Social Rights have explained to independent news portal CanariasAhora that when the person suspected of being responsible for the riot was arrested, it was quickly proven that he was in fact of legal age.
Several adults were suspected to be among the more than two thousand foreign children who arrived alone on the Canary Islands throughout 2020, a problem that grew in the Archipelago at the same time as unprecedented numbers of migrant arrivals were  not able to be removed or to leave of their own volition, due to pandemic restrictions in place at the time. The main cause of these adults being placed among children in care was identified as being initial errors by the National Police at the point of first contact and the subsequent lengthy delays in carrying out age determination tests and obtaining the results. This prevented many youths, being cared from by the state, from being able to be sent to school until their age was officially determined.
In fact, on the very same day that these disturbances occurred, misplaced adults were suspected of causing problems, which we had explained at the time following one of our many visits to this centre, and others, in the area:
“95 percent” of current problems in migrant minor accommodations caused by those suspected to really be adults

Hermanos Medina La Herradura SL, who own the Puerto Bello complex, will demand the payment of the damages by administrative means, from the autonomous community, withdrawing their private accusation in the case against the young Moroccan whose trial was to be held this Tuesday at the Provincial Court of Las Palmas, but which was suspended due to a failure to summon some of the witnesses, according to sources from the Prosecutor’s Office.
The lawyer for the complex, Álvaro Campanario, pointed out that the Prosecutor’s Office are claiming €10,092 worth of damage caused in the attempted riot, allegedly incited and led by the accused Ahmed H., but that there were many more incidents that occurred in the apartments during the nine months it was being used as a temporary reception centre for unaccompanied minors arriving by boat.
The contract between Puerto Bello and the Regional Government expired on July 31 with the complex once again beginning to operate as tourist accommodation, as of the end of 2021, according to court papers.
During the time the property was assigned as an accommodation centre for unaccompanied migrant minors, it was under the supervision of the NGO, Fundación Respuesta Social Siglo XXI, who since 2001 have provided services and infrastructure in the field of childhood and youth social care, developing programs that range from educational and residential care for minors to the management of Nursery Schools, through the implementation of training and employment promotion programs for the young.
The young Moroccan on trial faces up to five years in prison accused of crimes of public disorder, in competition with attack and causing damage, having allegedly led a small rampage through the facility, in the company of other residents, all minors, on the night of February 8, 2021.  Full responsibility for the disturbances on that night have been placed squarely on the shoulders of the accused man, who had misrepresented himself as also being a minor, and who should not have been among the unaccompanied youths who were being cared for at the facility.
According to the Public Prosecutor’s accusation, the defendant, carrying a wooden leg torn from a bed in one of the rooms, and in the company of four other minors – who also carried chains, wooden sticks and broken glass – intimidated the young residents of the complex, the vast majority of whom would not join their violent revolt, though he managed to get about twenty to follow him and make trouble.
As a result of that night’s events, the defendant and the other minors caused damage to every floor of the Puerto Bello complex, breaking the glass in doors and windows, breaking all kinds of furniture and appliances, electrical outlets and light sockets, say the Prosecutor’s Office in their brief.
The charges include details of how some minors threw objects, such as microwaves, chairs and tables, from the balconies of the rooms on the upper floors, to the lower ones, causing the educators present at the centre to have to hide to avoid being injured while they waited for the arrival of the security forces.
The agents, when they appeared at the complex, observed the placement of barricades built with chairs, microwaves and glass smashed on the floor, the perpetrators having spilled soapy water to try to prevent access and their arrest, which took several hours, says the indictment.
Unsubstantiated accusations of a failure to protect children
An anonymous complaint, purporting to be from a group of workers at the centre, claimed that there had been some evidence of sexual abuse and sexual exploitation among the vulnerable residents, which occurred both inside and outside the establishment. According to the text, to which CanariasAhora has had access, at least three minors from the centre were suspected to have practiced some form of prostitution, both inside the establishment and also outside, with adults in the local area.
According to these reports of unchecked exploitation, at least one minor was said to have also suffered sexual abuse, perpetrated by adults incorrectly accommodated there, who, despite the fact that their legal age had already been proven, had not yet been referred to another adult reception facility elsewhere in the Archipelago.
The complainants furthermore claimed that the management of the centre were aware of these facts, but that they had “refused to request diagnostic tests for sexually transmitted diseases for the minors.” And it was this, theoretically, that motivated the complaint emailed to the Canary Islands social services and to the local town hall.
It was specifically this anonymous complaint that led the Government of the Canary Islands to order two urgent inspections, which did not manage to obtain any proof the veracity of the accusations. A few days after the document became known in the media, the Las Palmas Prosecutor’s Office, through their Minors’ Section, called for those responsible for the appeal to testify.
Minors continue to be moved from Puerto Rico while prosecutors investigate anonymous allegations

Puerto Bello investigation looks more closely as it emerges current director is newly appointed

https://thecanarynews.com/2021/06/some-evidence-of-alcohol-and-drug-use-among-the-youths-of-puerto-bello-the-priority-now-is-to-relocate-them/

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Suspect arrested in Gran Canaria north after Gáldar bus driver attack, detainee’s mother heartbroken

Guardia Civil have arrested a 21-year-old man, with numerous prior police records, accused of stabbing a bus driver in the early hours of Tuesday morning at the Gáldar municipal bus station, as the driver started his work day.

 
 

 

The Guardia Civil said in a statement that the person, a resident of the area, was suspected of being responsible for the alleged crime of attempted homicide, just before 5:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning, having attacked a bus driver, causing serious injuries, when he had refused to give the man, who was begging, any money.
Subsequently, the alleged aggressor fled on foot from the place to the urban centre of Gáldar, where he was arrested some hours later, while the wounded man was assisted at the scene by members of the SUC and later transferred by ambulance to the Doctor Negrín Hospital de Gran Canaria.
At the scene an investigation conducted by personnel from the Judicial Police Unit of the Las Palmas Command, the Judicial Police Territorial Team and personnel from the Santa María de Guía investigation area and Gáldar Local Police, resulted in the arrest of the alleged perpetrator.
The Organic Unit of the Judicial Police and the Territorial Team of the Judicial Police of Santa María de Guía continue with the instruction of the corresponding proceedings that will be delivered together with the detainee to the corresponding courts of Santa María de Guía, added the note.

Meanwhile the mother of the detainee as published a frank and heart-rending message on social media, after various groups began circulating images of her son, and making all sorts of outlandish claims. Heartbroken she extends her sorrow, sympathy and her apologies to the victim and his family, saying that she had repeatedly reported her son for violent behaviour, and that she felt her warnings had been ignored, leaving her to try to keep the young man in the house as much as possible to avoid others being hurt. She makes no excuses for him, and simply hopes that he may now get some of the help he needs, but to her mind he should have been taken off the streets a long time ago, no matter how hard she tried, the authorities could not assist her in dealing with her son.
She is quoted in the Spanish press as saying “Yesterday my world fell [apart] my son almost killed a human being. My son, something that could have been avoided if they had given me alternatives, if they had put him in prison from the first criminal act, but no, gentlemen, it is now that everyone wants to do something. I apologise to that man, to his family, I feel a lot of pain and my son is going to pay for his actions”
“But,” she pleads “stop so many speculations, the aggressor also has a family. I don’t have to share this, it’s something very private that I’ve been suffering for years, but since people have started sharing his photo, I’m not going to justify or take responsibility for their decisions by pointing them out. I do feel obliged to apologise and say “it could have been avoided.”

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Newsbrief: Guardia Civil recover objects stolen from Mogan Mall with market value of €4870

The Guardia Civil of the Main Post in Puerto Rico de Gran Canaria, in collaboration with the Policia Local of Santa Lucía, arrested three people between the ages of 26 and 33, with numerous prior police records, for thefts committed in commercial establishments.

 
 

 

The investigation began on January 30, when Mogán Mall shopping centre security team alerted the Puerto Rico Guardia Civil Post of the occurrence of a criminal act in a well-known commercial establishment and that the perpetrators were travelling in a vehicle with specific characteristics.
For all these reasons, a notice was given to the police units in service for the location and interception of said vehicle and its perpetrators, obtaining a positive result when agents of the Policia Local of Santa Lucía, during the execution of a static control device, they observed how said vehicle carried out an evasive manoeuvre to avoid police action, having been intercepted during the course of its flight.
Several valuables were found in the vehicle, some even with the anti-theft devices still installed, as well as previously prepared effects and tools that allowed the alarm and security systems of commercial establishments to be eluded.
The immediate coordination between both forces allowed the arrest of the three individuals, in addition to the recovery of effects with a market value of about €4,870.

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Police dismantle prolifically active cocaine organisation on Gran Canaria

Guardia Civil and Policia Nacional, regarding Operation JEZABEL-DOOLITTLE, consider dismantled one of the most active criminal groups on the Island of Gran Canaria, specialised in the introduction and subsequent distribution of large quantities of cocaine on the island.

 
 

 

After several phases of investigation, the operation has resulted in the arrest of 8 people, 7 of them of Spanish nationality and another Bulgarian, having managed to seize a total of 17 kilograms of cocaine and 13 litres of procaine, a precursor used for the adulteration of narcotics. Investigators had become aware of a criminal group based in the Canary archipelago, possibly planning the introduction of significant amount of cocaine, specifically on the island of Gran Canaria.
Modus Operandi
Agents were able to find out that this group had several vehicles prepared with “caches”, spaces created inside, to hide drugs and money, as well as buildings in which to store the narcotic substance prior to its distribution.It was also possible to corroborate the existence of a group of people, paid by the criminal organisation, who acted as “mules” moving the money obtained from the sale of the drug off the island.
Subsequently, it was also possible to detect the route of entry of the precursors, substances used for the adulteration of cocaine in this case, specifically procaine, a drug that blocks nerve conduction and acts as a powerful local anaesthetic, seizing a total of 13 litres of the substance at Gran Canaria airport.
More than a million euros was seized and 17 kg of cocaine
In a final phase of the operation, it was possible to identify the leader of this organisation and all the members who actively participated in the events under investigation, both in the introduction and in the distribution and laundering of money. It should be noted that throughout the investigation €1,000,000 in banknotes of different denominations have been seized, the majority carried by the aforementioned “mules”.
 

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Guardia Civil arrest two suspected phone thieves in Puerto Rico de Gran Canaria

Guardia Civil, from the Main Post in Puerto Rico de Gran Canaria, Mogán, last Saturday, February 5, arrested a man and a woman, aged 31 and 19 years of age respectively, both with prior police records for crimes against other people’s property, on suspicion of a robbery with violence against two minors, committed in a shopping centre in Puerto Rico where they attacked the young people and stole their high-end mobile phones valued at about €1,600.

 
 

 

The arrests occurred following events on December 19, 2021, when the youths were at the back of a shopping centre in Puerto Rico, they reported that they had been attacked while sitting on a bench and a couple had forced them to hand over mobile phones without saying a word, say the Civil Guard in a press release.
Later, they were helped by a Guardia Civil patrol, which verified that the minors had slight contusions all over their bodies, so they were referred to the Arguineguín Health Centre, in Mogán.
Based on these facts, the Guardia Civil initiated an investigation, making inquiries about the time of the events and studying a series of images, and were able to identify the alleged perpetrators of the robbery and aggression, who were also identified by the victims.
For this reason, the Civil Guard carried out a security operation, in coordination with the Policia Local of Mogán, that allowed them to locate and arrest the suspects during the night of February 5, when agents carried out reconnaissance on foot by the park on Avenida Tomás Roca Bosch in Puerto Rico de Gran Canaria, where the man and woman were arrested for the alleged crime of robbery with violence and intimidation.
The investigation is still open in order to locate the two stolen terminals.

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