The Civil Guard is investigating thirty people for fraud in the collection of subsidies from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union, by omitting, in alleged connivance with staff from the Junta de Castilla y León, the use of transport guides of livestock and simulation of grazing to obtain, illicitly, a series of aid.
As reported this Wednesday by the armed institute, it is estimated that those investigated were able to obtain an illicit benefit close to one million euros and, after the property investigation that has been carried out in parallel, nearly one hundred properties valued at more than four million have been frozen. of euros.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development has stated that it is already collaborating with the investigation in everything requested of them and has indicated that the Administration has appeared in the case as an "injured party."
The fraud is related to animal health and welfare and the actions have been coordinated, for the first time, by a Seprona Unit together with the European Public Prosecutor's Office, which has led to the investigation of 22 natural persons and 8 legal persons for fraud.
Those investigated are accused of several crimes of subsidy fraud, administrative prevarication, document falsification and fraud.
Irregularities have been detected in the collection of these subsidies by ranchers in the provinces of Palencia, Zamora, Valladolid, Segovia, Ávila, Salamanca and Cantabria.
The investigations began in June 2022, when it was learned of the existence of a plot that would falsify the necessary conditions for the illicit obtaining of a series of aid from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), allegedly in connivance with administration personnel. belonging to the Junta de Castilla y León, specifically the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development.
The purpose of this aid is to support the income of farmers and ranchers in order to make agriculture profitable and guarantee the production of safe food and the rights to this aid are granted by the competent autonomous administration and must involve land and an activity to be carried out on that land.
Specifically, the aid analyzed in this operation was granted by virtue of grazing with slaughter animals (intended for human consumption) in pastures assigned to each applicant.
The ranchers investigated requested the help of the PAC by simulating the carrying out of this grazing in different territories located in the province of Palencia. The aforementioned ranchers owned intensive cattle farms, whose purpose was to fatten the animals in the shortest possible time, so these animals "never got to graze on the lands that were the subject of aid."
The ranchers involved received an illegal annual amount of around 45,000 euros per rancher, for simulating grazing on land when, in reality, "the cattle never left the intensive farms."
It has also been demonstrated that the pastures for which CAP aid was received were "illegally reassigned to ranchers in southern Spain", who had livestock for slaughter that they moved to the aforementioned pastures for transhumance.
In this way, "a double illicit benefit was obtained from the pastures", which were documentary attributed to the ranchers applying for the CAP, to receive the aid, but in reality "they were taken advantage of by other ranchers who had to pay for the use of them." ".
This fraud was, according to the investigations, led by the head of the Regional Agrarian Section (SAC), who was in charge, in person, of the validation and management of the different fraudulent files and ignored the warnings of the technicians of his administration. .
It coincides that the veterinarian in charge of inspecting the livestock was the romantic partner of the aforementioned head of the SAC, who did not carry out any field inspection in the period during which the investigated crimes were committed, despite the existence of "a multitude of conditions." risky".
In addition, the president of the Neighborhood Council, brother of the head of the SAC, issued certificates of use of fraudulent pastures (mandatory official document for applying for aid).
On the other hand, a series of people related on a personal level to the figure of the head of the SAC and linked to an association for the defense of livestock farmers were in charge of "getting" the livestock farmers requesting aid, in different provinces, carrying out first hand the necessary steps for the ranchers to obtain the illicit benefit.
