The judge investigating the so called ‘Brugal’ case looking into corruption surrounding lucrative refuse collection contracts in Orihuela, an area to the south of Alicante, has accused another 39 people of being involved. Amongst those now under suspicion are Mónica Lorente, the current mayor of Orihuela, and the former mayor, José Manuel Medina – both are members of the PP opposition party.

There are nine politicians included in the latest list released by the judge investigating the corruption case. The rest are businessmen and women from the area with connections to the refuse collection and cleaning services valued to be worth 190 million euros over a 20 year period. The accusations involve the offering of bribes to politicians in the bidding process for refuse collection and municipal cleaning contracts.

Until now only 15 people had been accused of being involved in the corruption scandal including José Joaquín Ripoll the president of Alicante county council and three PP councillors from Orihuela town hall together with leading business men Enrique Ortiz and Ángel Fenoll.

Together with the current mayor and the former mayor of Orihuela town hall another nine councillors have been implicated in the case including David Costa (head of contracts), Antonio Lidón and José Manuel Cutillas.