Spanish police arrest popular singer Isabel Pantoja

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Isabel Pantoja. Photo EFE

One of Spain's most flamboyant singers has been arrested in a construction bribery investigation in the flashy resort town of Marbella which has already put her ex-mayor boyfriend behind bars.

Isabel Pantoja, a star in Spain since the 1970s for trilling popular songs with a flamenco twist, spent the night in a Malaga police cell after her arrest late on Wednesday, officials said.

The 50-year-old was escorted from home wearing dark glasses and without handcuffs, a witness said, after her arrest on suspicion of money-laundering and tax evasion in the probe into corruption in Marbella's city government.

Pantoja, who has denied any wrongdoing, was due to appear before an investigating judge later on Thursday in Marbella. The town's palm-lined beachfronts and yacht-filled harbours have long been a playground for the rich and it is now in danger of becoming synonymous with sleaze.

"Operation Malaya"

A year-long investigation dubbed "Operation Malaya" has led to almost 100 arrests including that of Pantoja's boyfriend, the former mayor of Marbella, Julian Munoz.

Property and cash worth more than 2 billion euros ($2.7 billion) have been confiscated during the probe into bribes given in return for building permits and other favours. Witnesses have described piles of cash found in suspects' homes.

Construction boom

Marbella has come to symbolise local government corruption fed by a decade-long construction boom. Builders have been made into billionaires even as soaring prices put the price of a home out of reach of an increasing number of Spaniards.

Regional elections take place on May 27 and Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero is trying to head off any damage from the Marbella scandal, which has implicated former members of his ruling Socialist Party.

"Neither this country nor its people nor their government is going to tolerate any corruption," Zapatero said during an electioneering visit to Marbella on Wednesday.

Both Spain's main political parties have suffered embarrassments. Town government officials all over Spain have been arrested or charged with taking cash in return for permits as the countryside has increasingly been concreted over.

More than a quarter of all buildings in Spain have been constructed in the last decade. Last year more homes were built here than in France, Germany and Britain combined.

Fears that Spain's soaring private debt levels were about to burst a construction bubble sent tremors through European stock markets last month and the share prices of several Spanish property companies plummeted.

Also famous throughout Latin America, Pantoja's flamboyant career and love life have provided fodder for Spain's gossip magazines for decades. She was widowed when Francisco Rivera "Paquirri", one of the Spain's best bullfighters, was gored to death in the ring in 1984.