Police arrest two people for alleged property-related corruption

Police have arrested two people in southern Spain over alleged property-related corruption to bring the total detained this week to 12, Spanish media reported on Friday.

Spain has been plagued by corruption at a local government level as a decade-long property boom makes land deals a rich breeding ground for profiteering and back-handers.

Police accuse those arrested of taking bribes for illegally reclassifying land and selling council-owned land at far below the market price, El Pais newspaper said.

Television images showed police escorting Jose Martinez Andreo, the conservative mayor of the small inland town of Totana, from council buildings and removing boxes of material. A court spokeswoman for the region of Murcia confirmed 10 of the arrests. Government officials and police would not comment.

In the flamboyant resort town of Marbella, so many councillors faced corruption allegations, including the mayor, that the government took the unprecedented step of dissolving the council last year and installing a caretaker committee.