The Los Cristianos pier, a strategic hub for the steady flow of passengers and vessels linking Tenerife with the rest of the archipelago, requires a permanent and flawless security deployment. In this setting, dives by the Guardia Civil’s Special Underwater Activities Group (GEAS) are not a mere formality: they are the guarantee that berthing areas and operational zones are free of any threat. A routine inspection in the waters of the southern port ended up becoming the epicenter of an institutional scandal at the force’s highest levels. Judgment No. 059/2026 (corresponding to Ordinary Military Contentious-Disciplinary Appeal No. 122/23).
The events took place during an autumn shift at the port facilities. The unit’s official documentation set the operations to begin in the early afternoon, specifying a preventive “underwater inspection” in the “passenger area of Los Cristianos pier.” The actual activity at the port presented an entirely different picture. The team did not appear at the port facility until after 4 p.m.; the dive in the passenger boarding area “was never carried out.”
The timing discrepancy at critical infrastructure such as Los Cristianos port took on the utmost seriousness after passing through internal control checks. In a service where maritime traffic safety depends on the accuracy of underwater inspections, the contradiction between the information entered in the “SIGO application” and the “Service Report” triggered alarms, leading to a charge of a serious offense for “issuing reports or service records that do not reflect reality or distort it.”
Tracking Access to the Pier
The gap between the declared activity and the port’s actual operations affected the financial management of the deployment. The time certification in the “allowance and compensation claims,” submitted both for the team’s commander and the “three subordinates” assigned to the service in Los Cristianos, reflected the theoretical time rather than the actual time. This resulted in “the collection of allowances higher than those to which they were entitled.”
The internal investigation tracked movements within the port. The “vehicle entry records” at the Los Cristianos port facility, combined with computer records and the “testimony of the assigned Guardia Civil officers,” constituted the definitive “incriminating evidence” that dismantled the official account of the deployment at the pier. In response to defense arguments alleging a “lack of valid incriminating evidence” or a “violation of the principle of legality,” investigators concluded that an offense “completed by the act itself” had been committed, as both the “objective element” of documentary falsification and the “subjective element” were present.
The matter entered the judicial system over possible falsification offenses. The defense sought to halt the administrative proceedings under the principle of “criminal prejudiciality,” citing “preliminary proceedings before an investigating court.” That avenue was rejected because no “decisive influence” over the offense committed in the management of the port service was found.
Fracture in Maritime Security
The shadow of a fictitious underwater inspection in a high-passenger-traffic area such as Los Cristianos exposed a serious breakdown in the chain of command. In an operational unit where loyalty and accuracy in reporting are essential to safety at sea, what happened shattered internal trust, affecting the “degree of impact on discipline, loyalty and command duties.”
The ruling sets a standard for units deployed at ports and along coasts. The assessment of “intent” establishes that certifying a nonexistent underwater search at Los Cristianos pier was not an administrative oversight, but a very serious offense punishable by the “loss of post,” as the measure was deemed “legally justified.” The case closes a chapter for the armed institution: in the port environment, the distance between operational rigor and professional discredit is measured in the waters where no one ever ended up diving.
The article A Lie About a GEAS Inspection at Tenerife Ports Sets Off Turmoil Within the Guardia Civil was first published on canarymaritime.com.
