The head of the Investigating Court number 5 of Santander will take a statement from the detainees this Friday for their alleged involvement in crimes of tax fraud, money laundering or bribery
The National Police has arrested this Wednesday eight people in a joint operation with the Tax Administration Agency for alleged irregularities in the award of contracts in the road maintenance service of the Government of Cantabriaas reported to EFE by sources of the investigation.
In addition, within this operation of the Central Unit for Economic and Fiscal Crime (UDEF), five companies, two private homes and the Ministry of Public Works, Territorial Planning and Urban Planning, of which the alleged ringleader is a senior official, have been registered. of this plot, according to RNE in Cantabria.
Of the eight arrests, six have occurred in Cantabria and two in Madrid, sources of the investigation have specified to EFE, within which nine searches will be carried out.
At a press conference, the Minister of Public Works, José Luis Gochicoa, has assured that he is “absolutely” unaware of the reason for the searches that have been carried out in his department and has said that he is not aware of “any suspicion or complaint” in the road maintenance service. He has also specified that there have been no arrests in the Ministry.
“We have absolutely no idea”Gochicoa has stated about this search that, from 7.30 am, agents of the UDEF and the Tax Agency carry out by order of the Investigating Court number 5 of Santander, which has decreed the summary secrecy.
Gochicoa has explained that the road maintenance service has a hundred workers and a budget of 16 million euros per yearthat there have been searches in “two or three offices” of that department and that today an official has not attended, who has alleged “personal reasons.”
The counselor has not specified, to questions from journalists, who this official is, although he has considered that He will have “a relevant reason” for not going to his job.
Yes, he has pointed out that this official has “extensive experience” in the highway service, in which he “has been for many years.”
The eight arrests that have been carried out this Wednesday respond, as reported by RNE in Cantabria, to an investigation initiated more than a year ago by the Tax Administration Agency, which detected an enrichment of the alleged ringleader that was not commensurate with his economic level and that supposedly he could have been awarding contracts irregularly for more than ten years thanks to the position he held and his knowledge of the administration.
The head of the Investigating Court number 5 of Santander will take a statement from the detainees this Friday for their alleged involvement in crimes of tax fraud, money laundering or bribery.
Gochicoa has advanced that “if there were irregularities” in contracts dependent on the Ministry or on any official, he would propose that his department appear as injured party in a hypothetical judicial process.
“If there is exploitation, the full weight of the law has to fall on that person”asserted Gochicoa, who has admitted that it has been “a day of disgust” and has added that the service that is being registered “has always worked well”, “is effective” and worked “correctly”.
He has also assessed that it would be “irresponsible” to resign at this time, because first you have to “know what happened”. “What I have to do is work to help clarify the facts,” she added.
The three opposition parties in the Parliament of Cantabria (PP, Ciudadanos and Vox) have requested the urgent appearance of the Cantabrian president, Miguel Ángel Revilla, and the Minister of Public Works to request explanations about what happened.
In the absence of more information, the general secretary of the Cantabrian PP, María José González Revuelta, has opined that this matter “smells bad” and has regretted that the region is experiencing a new “scandal”.
“As Revilla would say, the urine of the patient smells bad, but we are going to be very cautious, although we demand immediate explanations,” he stressed.
The Cs spokesman, Félix Álvarez, has also expressed himself in this way, who criticizes that “everything sucks for a long time in the regionboth in the way in which the different governments manage public money and in some awards”, while Cristóbal Palacio (Vox) believes that, if confirmed, the government’s control mechanisms would have failed and, therefore, considers that your “top manager” -Miguel Ángel Revilla- is the one who must appear to explain what happened.