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Spanish police raided town halls and businesses across the country yesterday, arresting 12 people as part of a sweeping investigation into the suspected infiltration of local governments by organised crime.
In the latest chapter of corruption scandals that have engulfed much of Spain’s political class, police staged 48 raids, mostly in Madrid and the Catalonia region, including on eight town halls, according to the Spanish interior ministry. The inquiry, involving 340 police from 10 regions, followed the detection of a possible organised crime network hidden behind local state-owned enterprises that acted as a front, a ministry statement said.
“Those under investigation constructed a parallel structure in the town halls in order to avoid oversight,” said a statement by Spain’s anti-corruption prosecutor’s office, which led the inquiry .
“The creation of local state-owned companies that lacked any business activity was detected. These formed a fraudulent network through which local public funds were siphoned off first to another public firm, then to a private commercial company.” — Reuters.
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