A company that participated in the largest international forest firefighting aircraft scandal, for which there were court convictions in Spain, has also been cooperating with the Republic of Cyprus for years. according to data identified by "F".
The reason for the "cartel of fire" (cartel del fuego), the ring with the participation of state officials of the country of the Iberian Peninsula, which by judicial seal predetermined contracts with aircraft.
Irrefutable evidence identified by our newspaper shows that one of the convicted companies with a leading role was for years a close partner of the Republic of Cyprus, especially the Department of Forests. The reason for AVIALSA which was renamed TITAN FIREFIGHTING COMPANY S.L.
AVIALSA, therefore, not only appears to have had a catalytic role in the scandal, as highlighted in a court decision of a Spanish Court in February 2025, but at the same time had contracts of millions with the Department of Forests.
Contracts of €32 million
Our journalistic investigation was triggered by the criminal prosecution that is underway in Cyprus and began in 2024, following an internal investigation by the Ministry of Agriculture that had been carried out on the instructions of Minister Maria Panagiotou.
Through the case file in question, we ended up with a company that in only four years had a cumulative contract award amount of €32,194,500. A criminal investigation is being carried out for these contracts, in which the main suspect is an official of the Department of Forests
One of the controversial contracts that emerged through the Ministry's investigation and are now - based on a case file - are a main part of the ongoing criminal proceedings, shows that a contract worth millions of euros for aircraft in 2024 was awarded to Titan Fire Fighting Company S.L.
A document proves it
The company in question, i.e., Titan Fire Fighting Company S.L. is none other than AVIALSA, which was punished (exclusion from contracts) in Spain. This position that we record is projected in international publications, but we were not satisfied with them. Documents of aerial firefighting competitions of the Department of Forests examined by "F" include a written admission that as of 2019 AVIALSA was renamed Titan Fire Fighting Company S.L.
In a tender process of the Department of Forests, Titan Fire Fighting Company S.L. appears to have submitted certificates in 2020 showing that its previous name was AVIALSA.
We quote a full report from documents of the relevant tender: "In its offer, Titan Fire Fighting Company SL included a letter stating that Titan Fire Fighting Company SL is the same company as AVIALSA T-35 SL, which was renamed in 2019 to Titan Fire Fighting Company SL, with the VAT number remaining the same. This, as it states, is confirmed by official documents included in its offer. (…) From the official translation of the documents into English, which was forwarded to the Contracting Authority by the Tenderer with the email dated 27/2/2020, the HCC ascertained that the company AVIALSA T-35 SL was indeed renamed on 24/7/2019 to Titan Fire Fighting Company SL, with the VAT number remaining the same".
More competitions
TITAN FIREFIGHTING COMPANY S. L. has other contracts in the past with the Department of Forests. Indicative is also a tender in 2022, which was awarded to this legal entity and concerned the lease of two aircraft for forest firefighting and related services.
In documents we studied concerning the tender evaluation process, the following was noted, among other things: "The Tender Council observed the very large excess of the financial offer in relation to the expenditure estimate of the Department of Forests which reaches 64.78%. If the financial offer is analyzed per pilot, then the difference jumps to 147% as the Economic Operator has a smaller number of pilots than the number required in the tender. The Coordinator of the Evaluation Committee clarified that the price offered by the Economic Operator concerned the start of the contract from June 1st. If the planes arrive on July 1st then the price will be reduced proportionally according to Form 9 mentioned by the Daily Availability of planes. He also stated that the 2 pilots that the Economic Operator does not have cannot be counted in the cost of the contract as they are the backup pilots who are not obliged to be in Cyprus but come in case of the need to replace one of the 4 main pilots".
In the end, the tender was awarded, despite the above reservations, to TITAN FIREFIGHTING COMPANY S. L.
Other transactions
>> However, AVIALSA and Titan Firefighting Company S. L. for years were a close collaborator of the Republic. Whether it concerned contracts worth millions, or amounts of a few tens of thousands of euros. All these contracts had to do with the aerial means of forest firefighting and related services. It is indicative of a payment statement identified by "F" and shows the Department of Forests paying €61,630.00 to AVIALSA with the following reasoning: "Scholarships and Education Abroad".
>> As "F" revealed with its continuous publications, the police examinations for the contracts of the Department of Forests in relation to aerial firefighting, focus on three officials of the Department of Forests. Investigators' investigations have shown that in an indirect way all three were connected to companies that received public money. They were closing gold-bearing deals, since only in one case did a company win contracts worth around €32 million. Among other things, the investigators, looking for the role of the three suspicious officials of the Department of Forests, identified behind companies, which had large profits from the state thanks to the gold-bearing contracts, relatives of the audited.
Conviction with testimony from an Avialsa official: 'Setting prices'
As announced in February 2025, the National Court of Spain (Audiencia Nacional) sentenced twelve people to sentences ranging from two years and three months to six months in prison, for forming a cartel in the public procurement of the aviation sector to fight fires between 2001 and 2018.
Among the convicted, as stated in an official announcement by the country's judicial authorities, "is the former government representative in the Autonomous Community of Valencia, Seraphine C. The Court sentenced him to 1 year and 9 months in prison for continuous bribery, continuous preferential negotiation, continuous embezzlement and continuous forgery of an official document (...)".
In its ruling, the Court imposed for the first time a nine-month ban on a number of companies, including Avialsa T35, which had contracts with the Department of Forests.
An Avialsa executive played an important role in exposing the cartel. What is stated in the court decision is characteristic: "The Court accepted the request of the defense of the defendant Francisco A.E. to apply the exculpatory excuse to him (...) The lawyer argued that his client denounced the existence of the cartel and the persons and companies involved, including himself as a director of a company, and produced about five hundred documents, including those proving criminal coordination for price fixing and market sharing in tenders for fire-fighting aircraft (...) In addition, he stated that during the trial he had recognized his position as a "pioneer" of the Avialsa company, the control of the facts and his participation in the cartel that was tried".
The investigative journalism website datajournalists.co.uk in its report on the whole case speaks of "a series of aircraft sales and lease companies, which had formed cartels in order, influencing and bribing public officials and having direct access to the Ministry of the Interior, to "divide" the projects in order to achieve the award of contracts for the sale or lease of Air Tractor type aircraft in various versions (AT-502, AT-802, amphibians, etc.) for the provision of aerial forest firefighting services, without competition and controlling prices". He adds that "this has been happening for 15 years" and that "the total damage of the Spanish state, according to the Financial Prosecutor's Office, has been estimated at €151,585,3826.22. The case is in full swing and is known by the name "the fire cartel" or in Spanish "Cartel del Fuego".
"The cartel," he notes, "had a specific structure, goals and way of operating. The cartel members had regular meetings every 2-3 months in a hotel between Seville and Valencia. There they decided and coordinated their actions, dividing the contracts by geographical area with predetermined prices significantly higher, since they had eliminated competition."
