The Vice President of the Canarian Parliament denounces a montage to link a businessman accused of drug trafficking | Spain

The former president and current vice president of the Parliament of the Canary Islands, Gustavo Matos, has discouraged on Tuesday from any implication with the businessman of Lebanese origin Mohamed Jamil Derbah, arrested since May 1, and has assured that in the only meeting they held, he promised to inform the interior of interior a series of possible police illicit in Tenerife that had related to him in his lawyer. « My relationship with Mr. Mohamed Jamil Derbah has been limited to a relationship of cordiality derived from common friendships, in the business and social sphere of the island of Tenerife, without ever having existed between any link that may have legal, contractual or other transcendence. » The socialist deputy repeatedly recalled that he is not being investigated.

The Tenerife politician (PSOE) has appeared on Tuesday at a press conference held in the Canary Islands Parliament following the publication in The world from an internal affairs report that reveals an alleged conversation between Matos and the businessman – in prison for weeks as the leader of a network that was dedicated to the criminal organization, drug trafficking, bribery and money laundering – in which he asked to intercede to avoid inspections to his cannabis clubs. National Police sources have asserted Europa Press on Tuesday, in this sense, that the investigation opened to the Lebanese businessman does not imply any crime to Matos.

At the press conference, Matos remarked that he maintained “a single and brief encounter” with Mr. Derbah and his lawyer, on January 29 at 18.30 in the afternoon, on the 7th floor of El Corte Inglés de Santa Cruz de Tenerife. « They exposed me facts and showed me some supposed evidence of these irregular or allegedly criminal behaviors by alleged members of the State Security Forces and Bodies, specifically the National Police Corps, » he detailed. « After that meeting, I promised to put the facts that were transferred to me – and that presented an appearance of serious irregularity – in the knowledge of the corresponding authorities dependent on the Ministry of the Interior, in this case of the subdelegate of the Government in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Issue that can be corroborated. I was informed that these facts were already being investigated. »

« If the investigators had the slightest suspicion … I imagine that they will have reviewed my accounts and have punctured my phone, » insisted the socialist deputy, who has repeatedly remembered that he is not being investigated and stressed that the investigation is based on internal matters of the police, not from the anti -drug department. « The news itself is difficult to believe, » and has recriminated that he has not been called to corroborate his version.

In this sense, Matos repeatedly denounced the existence « of an extreme gravity. » « A filtration of a report that I do not have a record of judicial actions that are declared of summary secret. » The Vice President of the Parliament will request testimony to the courts who are investigating this issue to be transferred to those reports, has stressed that the published report is « biased, incomplete and manipulated. » And has announced. « I will appear and ask that criminal investigations begin to purify responsibilities by having partially filtered some actions that are under summary secret. »

The Government Delegation in the Canary Islands considers that « there is no case » regarding its department on the alleged relations attributed to the socialist deputy Gustavo Matos with a group of drug traffickers from Tenerife and expresses « all support » to the police work.

Gustavo Matos has been a lawyer since 1997. He is a deputy of the Canary Islands Parliament since 2015. The last legislature presided over the regional chamber. In 2014, lost to the former mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Patricia Hernándezthe primary of the party to lead the PSOE in the islands. In that vote, the former minister and current mayor of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Carlina Darias, was also defeated.