Three members of the Partido Popular led autonomous regional government of Murcia resigned today following the arrest of 50 people yesterday including two highflyers in the autonomous government accused of accepting commission in exchange for awarding public works contracts.
Yesterday the heads rolled in Murcia, León, Valencia and Madrid as the Guardia Civil made arrests and carried out searches in various Town Halls, including several in the Murcia region.
Arrests in the region included the Head of the regional Department of Industry, Tourism and Innovation, Juan Carlos Ruiz; the Director of the Institute of Tourism in Murcia, Mariola Martinez; and the former regional councillor, José Fidel Saura.
The former Mayor of Cartagena, José Antonion Alonso, and the technical secretary of the Institute of Tourism were also arrested.
The Mayors of the municipal areas of Collado Villaba, Casarrubuelos, Serranillaos Del Valle and Torrejón de Velasco in the Murcia region were also arrested.
Today, Tuesday, three heads of regional departments resigned: the previously mentioned, Mariola Martinez, of the Institute of Tourism in the region; Reyes Samper, Director of Information and the previously mentioned, José Fidel Saura.
In Madrid the former Secretary General of the PP in Madrid and ex right hand man of the former President of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, was also arrested as part of the operation.
The Guardia Civil involved in the operation, known as “Operación Púnica”, are investigating money laundering, falsifying documents, tax offences, bribery, influence peddling, embezzlement, perversion of justice, revealing secrets, business dealings prohibited for public employeees, fraud against the administration and organized crime.
In a press release issued yesterday the Public Prosecutor´s Office (Fiscal) detailed “a municipal and regional conspiracy infiltrating various Town Halls and autonomous regional governments (of which Murcia is one) in which municipal councillors, public servants and construction companies, building firms and energy services colluded, and corruptly used go-betweens and social instruments, in order to assure success for those aforementioned companies in the public works tendering processes to the tune of 250 million euros in just the last two years, as well as receiving illegal commissions at the cost of the Municipal and Autonomous tax authorities.
Some 400 current accounts have been embargoed and 30 luxury cars, belonging to the detainees, have been seized.
The mass arrests of public figures, many of whom hold or have recently held public office, has rocked the regional and national governments.
Although the majority of those arrested are members of the Partido Popular at least one local mayor arrested was a member of the PSOE ( Socialist Party) and another was an independent candidate.
