Spanish police to arrest 70 to 90 people in anti-corruption raids in Andalusia

Spanish media reported on Tuesday that police commenced a series of raids in the southern community of Andalusia aimed at arresting those involved with a wide-ranging fraud scheme which involved bogus training courses funded by the regional government.

Around 20 people have so far been arrested by the Economic and Fiscal Crimes Unit (UDEF), including the former Socialist party (PSOE) mayor of the town of Jerez de la Frontera, Pilar Sanchez, and a PSOE councilor in Roquetas de Mar, although between 70 and 90 warrants are thought to have been issued in total.

This is the third phase of an operation known as Operation Edu, with investigators focusing on areas surrounding the cities of Almeria, Cadiz and Malaga.

Schools being targeted include those which offered the training courses, many of which never actually took place. It is thought that up to a thousand people benefitted from the fraud.

El Pais newspaper said police sources estimated that between 20 and 40 million euros (between 23 and 45 million U.S. dollars) may have been been illegally given to individuals and businesses for courses which were never held over a six-year period between 2007 and 2013.

So far, investigators have interviewed around 300 people in connection with the alleged fraud which first came to light when social security officials filed a complaint in 2010.

A second phase of Operation Edu broke on the eve of the European Parliament elections in May, while this third phase comes just five weeks ahead of the elections for the Andalusian regional parliament scheduled for March 22, and coincides with the discovery of Swiss-held bank accounts for many well-known and wealthy clients of HSBC bank for tax evasion purposes.

This has prompted accusations from the PSOE that part of the motivation for Operation Edu is political. Enditem