Investigation into the murder of former mayor of Gandia, Arturo Torró
The body of the businessman and PP politician has been found on the highway with signs of having been shot and strangled
BarcelonaThe investigating court number 1 of Gandia is investigating the violent death of Arturo Torró, businessman and former mayor of the Valencian town for the PP between 2011 and 2015. The body was found by the Civil Guard this evening near a car stopped on the motorway, with a wound from the investigation –which has been declared secret– cited by the Efe agency. While awaiting the results of the autopsy, other sources cited by The World They suggest that the wound could also have been caused by a sharp object.
The agents of the armed institute have arrived at the scene of the crime after the mayor's wife gave the warning, according to the agency. Sources cited by The World, in fact, they point out that it would have been she who located the body after Torró called her asking for help because his tires had been punctured. The body was found several meters from a Mercedes that still had the engine running, at kilometer 38 of the A-38 highway, near Xeresa (Safor). Investigators are working on the hypothesis that the crime was committed by professional killers and for economic reasons.
Torró, 62 years old and founder of the MasVisión Group and Hidrosalud, was Sentenced in April 2023 for embezzlement in the Provincial Court of Valencia. The sentence, which was not final, imposed three and a half years in prison and six and a half years of absolute disqualification for the award of audiovisual communication services to the Gandia City Council from 2012 to 2015, in the case known as Tele 7.
Legal cases
The politician, who was ousted from the mayor's office by the now socialist minister Diana Morant, resigned in February 2016 as president of the PP of Gandia for "not to generate controversy", although he denied that the decision was motivated by his possible appointment as an investigated person, which came the following month. A week earlier he had announced his resignation from the councillor's position in the City Council for personal reasons, as he said.
It is not the only legal case that had splashed Torró, nor the only controversy that he starred in as mayor of Gandia. After starting in office by closing Gandia TV –100% in Valencian–, in 2014 he forced the removal of one of the city entrances from the work April 25, 1707, by the Alcoy sculptor Antoni Miró and which commemorated the battle of Almansa against the troops of Philip V. Despite opposition from the world of culture, the popular mayor considered the work to be too "Catalanist".
The PP of Gandia has made public a statement expressing consternation at the death of Torró, and the president of the Valencia provincial council, the also popular Vicent Mompó, has joined in the condolences. "I thought that this happened in other countries and that it could not happen so close to us," he said in a press conference. For its part, the Gandia City Council, governed by the PSPV, has declared three days of mourning and has suspended its institutional agenda for this Thursday. It has also called for a minute of silence for this Friday at noon at the doors of the consistory.
