Brothel creeper

Corruption scandal blows up for Socialist party over a hookers and kickbacks scheme

A LEADING politician went to a brothel on the day his party issued a firm condemnation of prostitution in Parliament.

PSOE deputy Juan Fuentes - or ‘Tito Berni’ as he is often known - visited Club Sombras, in Madrid, after a night out with clients, spending €150 on gin & tonics alone.

The Canary Islands politician has now become the focus of a kickbacks-for-favours scandal that has already cost him his role as a politician in the Congress of Deputies.

The so-called ‘Mediator’ case is now probing the scandal in which he and other figuresincluding a Guardia Civil boss - are accused of running a network taking bribes for political favours.

The group is accused of spending money on sex parties involving drugs, alcohol and pros- titutes, in return for favourable rulings or lucrative contracts. So far 12 people are being investigated, including at least seven businessmen. The case came to light when a series of arrests were carried out in the Canary Islands and mainland Spain, including Fuentes (right). The network is alleged to have handed businesses public contracts in exchange for kick-

SEVEN Ukrainians have been jailed after items worth over €1.2 million were stolen from refugees.

The Torrevieja-based gang also had assistance from a Russian couple and their son who provided them with vehicles for their robberies.

The group have been charged with seven burglaries in Catral, Guardamar, the Orihuela Costa, Pilar de la Horadada, Torrevieja, and San Pedro del Pinatar.

Bad apples

Victims were mainly Ukrainian women who fled their homeland with their children after last year’s Russian invasion. The Guardia Civil are looking into additional robberies and have recovered cash, jewellery, watches, phones, laptops, tablets, and stamp collections valued at over €1.2 million.

backs, as well as bribing firms in the farming sector in exchange for positive inspections. It also ensured that those involved would receive payments from European

Union funding. Compromising photos of Fuentes with hookers have been published in the press, causing an outrage in the run up to International Women’s Day.

Fuentes trip to Club Sombras came as his boss, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez condemned prostitution to coincide with International Day Against Sexual Exploitation and the Trafficking of Women and Children in September 2020.

Police also launched a campaign that day targeting men who pay for sex. A Tenerife court is now tasked to probe the scandal.

AN Alicante mother has been arrested after her 17-monthold son ate cannabis-laced corn snacks that imitated the Cheetos brand.

The boy suffered from vomiting and lost consciousness after consuming THC, which is the main psychoactive component of cannabis.

The drug was in a bag marked THCheetos which are banned in Spain and was almost certainly bought online.

The youngster spent two days at Alicante General Hospital.