Guardia Civil officers spend 13 hours searching Frigiliana town hall

The Guardia Civil spent over thirteen hours searching Frigiliana town hall in the Axarquía area of Malaga province on Tuesday 30 June as part of an operation investigating alleged crimes of misconduct in public office and embezzlement of public funds. The mayor, Alejandro Herrero (PSOE), remained inside the building from early on Tuesday morning until 10:31pm. The town hall remained closed to the public all day.

According to sources close to the case consulted by SUR, officers seized the mobile phones of both the mayor and councillors, leaving them virtually incommunicado throughout the day.

The investigators focused their efforts on reviewing and extracting contracts from departments including Infrastructure, Sports and Operational Services. All of this reportedly took place in the presence of municipal employees. It wasn't until late afternoon that the first developments occurred.

Three members of the local government left the municipal offices mid-afternoon, while the mayor, along with the first and second deputy mayors, remained inside the building with the officers. At 10.31pm the mayor left the building and went home.

He has been summoned as a person under investigation to the court in nearby Torrox where he will appear with his lawyer in the coming days, along with the six councillors who make up the PSOE (Spanish Socialist party) governing team, which holds an absolute majority at the town hall.

However, the operation was not limited to the town hall building. The review of documents led officers to search a private residence and a well-known bar in the town, as, according to sources, part of the investigation is focused on a suspicious contract allegedly linked to a company owned by a relative of the mayor. In addition, contracts with another twenty companies from various sectors are being investigated, as SUR has confirmed.

The operation is part of proceedings opened by a court in Torrox to investigate the alleged crimes of misconduct in public office and embezzlement of public funds. The focus is on the management of the town hall by the PSOE and the mayor Alejandro Herrero, who came to power after a vote of no confidence in February 2017 and has governed with an absolute majority since 2019.

Two years ago, the opposition Partido Popular (PP) spokesperson, Pedro Alcántara, publicly denounced the existence of an alleged "series of minor contracts awarded without competitive bidding that exceed the legal limit." As the PP councillor claimed at the time, a dozen local companies had billed around two million euros through this type of contracting scheme during the previous administration, with some exceeding an average of 70,000 euros annually. The opposition argued that this violated legal limits and created "inequality and legal uncertainty."

At that time, the PP warned that if the PSOE governing team did not resolve the situation, it would refer the alleged irregularities to the Public Prosecutor's Office. Among the cases highlighted by the PP were, in addition to minor contracts in various areas, alleged anomalies in the bidding process for the waste collection service and in the processing of 2021 subsidies for a padel court.

In response to these accusations, Herrero accused the PP of "alarmism" and of "not accepting" its electoral defeat. The mayor then defended the solvency of the municipality, highlighting that the town hall had been debt-free for seven years, with an average payment period to suppliers of 21 days and with tax reductions.