The Prosecutor’s Office investigates the work of ‘Mon’ for the Civil Guard of Tenerife

The company about which the The Public Ministry focuses its inquiries on Angrasurcor SL, established in 2013 and that in recent years dozens of minor works have been done in the headquarters. In a report signed by the Internal Affairs Service of the General Directorate of the Civil Guard It was reported that it was suspected that the builder invoiced works in barracks with works that he either never carried out or left half done, as the digital newspaper La Voz de Lanzarote announced yesterday. For this reason, an investigation was initiated into the possibility that fraud was being committed against public coffers. The National Fraud Investigation Office and the Special Delegation of Economy and Finance of Las Palmas also participate in the procedure.

From a brief consultation in the State Contracting website includes at least one job from the mercantile company investigated in Alicantespecifically the waterproofing of the roof and reform of the garage of the official dependencies of the Dolores Barracks for 58,062 euros with taxes. The businessman also won two contracts at the Algeciras Command for 29,973 and 27,903 euros, and more than a dozen in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, including one for 59,798 euros for the repair and waterproofing of the main façade of the San Andrés y Sauces barracks in The Palm. The circumstance occurs that the builder is specialized in the use of cork as an insulating material, a system that is sold as a differentiating element with respect to the competition to obtain public contracts because its maintenance is cheaper.

An anonymous complaint in May 2018 and a subsequent statement by the then colonel in charge of the Ávila Command, Carlos Alonso Rodríguez, They have already put all the spotlights on the companies managed by the aforementioned Ángel Ramón Tejera de León. In the letter without return address sent to the General Directorate of the Civil Guard, it was warned of alleged irregularities in the contracting of minor works in the command of the Castilian and Leonese province from which the same builder always benefited. Alonso confirmed in court that this builder was Mon, who had been recommended by lieutenant general Pedro Vazquez Jarava -currently withdrawn- with the excuse that it used a new waterproofing product, the aforementioned cork.

This investigation, directed by the Investigating Court number 2 of Ávila, was followed by a Madrid court upon glimpsing an alleged crime of documentary falsification that is attributed to the contractor from Lanzarote and another industrialist, in addition to two senior officials from the Armed Institute, including Lieutenant General Pedro Vazquez Jarava. The judge also ordered a review of the contracts that Mon executed in thirteen command posts throughout the national territory, including Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

The judicial authority directing the procedure has taken a statement as accused both Tejera de León and a second businessman, Salvador GE, who would be linked to the same contracts. The judge also questioned Vázquez Jarava and a commander as being investigated for alleged false documentation.

‘Mon’ in Tenerife

The proliferation of Mon contracts in the province of Santa Cruz made the General Directorate of the Civil Guard proceed to intervene in the treasury for at least a year of the command to control expenses, in addition to investigating whether the current chief colonel José María Tienda Serrano favored the hiring of the industrialist from Lanzarote, as La Voz de Lanzarote recalls.

Both Mon and Tienda Serrano share a friendship with the division general and ex-colonel in charge of the Las Palmas Command, Francisco Espinosa Navas, who is in prison for participating in the corrupt plot in which he was in charge of charging companies interested in settling in the Archipelago while he was a high-ranking officer in the Civil Guard. Espinosa Navas allegedly received money in cash or through prepaid cards in exchange for using his relationships with Canarian businessmen to obtain investments. Likewise, he took advantage of his position as a high-ranking member of the Armed Institute to give credibility to the criminal organization and try to mobilize Seprona to sanction those companies that did not pay bribes.

Mon appears in the Mediator case during a meeting in Santa Cruz de Tenerife with the getter Marcos Antonio Navarro Tacoronte that gives name to the investigation; General Espinosa Navas and the industrialist Antonio Bautista Prado, known as the Curita and who went to the criminal plot with the purpose of making important investments in the Archipelago to install photovoltaic panels.

The name of the chief colonel Tienda Serrano appears on the same page of the more than 3,000 that make up the summary of the cause. The highest figure of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Command for more than a decade is quoted during a conversation with General Espinosa in which Tienda assures that his subordinates “are looking for the papers”, although the investigation does not specify to what papers refers; and he names the “cousin” and “Luis”, two people who have not been identified so far, so their relationship to the plot is unknown.

These cases have led to the General Directorate of the Civil Guard in Madridd work is already being done on the replacement of the current colonel in charge of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, who due to age is close to going to the reserve.

Serrano store entered the Tenerife command in 2012 replacing Ricardo Arranz, who had been assigned to the headquarters of the Las Palmas province to cover the loss that Espinosa left when he was promoted to general. Member of the Helicopter Unit of the Civil Guard, he has spent a large part of his career within the Air Sector of Canary Islands in Los Rodeos where he has completed more than a thousand flight hours as an aircraft pilot.