The Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) of the National Police points out that, although the office of former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero located on Ferraz Street in Madrid would be the “operational command center” of the alleged influence trafficking network, his home “emerges as an ideal space for channeling and safeguarding the strategic planning of instructions involving greater sensitivity.” This is stated in a report that the agents delivered to the National Court on May 14 and which is now part of the case file, accessed by EL PAÍS.
The Police reach this conclusion based on “the analyzed emails.” From them, the UDEF infers that “not all the instructions” of the alleged network led by Zapatero are “formalized” through this channel and that “alternative communication channels would be used for the transmission” of these instructions. Specifically, the agents observe a “logistical pattern” in the “receipt of shipments and the issuance of invoices” that include the former socialist leader’s address.
Among these shipments, the investigators highlight “boxes of wine.” And among the invoices, they emphasize some “linked” to the investigation: those that Zapatero issued to Análisis Relevante — the consultancy at the heart of the network for receiving payments from Plus Ultra and making payments to the former president. According to the Police, there are messages exchanged on April 30, 2020, in which the Venezuelan broker Danilo Diazgranados said he had to send some wines and that the alleged lawyer of the network, Miguel Palomero, would pay for them with his account.
Additionally, the UDEF adds that — based on Zapatero’s “profile” and “having detected that supervision and control within the organized network” — it could be inferred that “the core of planning and direction would not be limited solely to the office environment,” but “would move to the surroundings of his home,” where the former president “would have greater privacy and control of the information.”
The investigators consider that the fact that the office is used as a “formal communication channel through ‘Gertru’” (María Gertrudis Alcázar, the former president’s personal secretary), the “interposition of third parties,” and Zapatero’s “constant mobility” “evidences a distributed functional structure” that is not confined to a single space, “but would be forged complementarily in the office and at his home.” Furthermore, they argue that all this is “reinforced” by the “criminal nature” of the investigated activities, where “there are signs of interested disassociation and a search for opacity” by the former president regarding the “organized network.”
Within the framework of the report, the agents highlight Zapatero’s “leadership role” in the alleged influence network. They assert that he has an “active role regarding the planning and supervision of the activities carried out.” In their view, this “implies” that the former PSOE leader, in addition to the information that might be contained in his office, could have “relevant documentation and information” about the investigated activities at his home.
The UDEF requested the judge of the National Court investigating the Plus Ultra case, José Luis Calama, to order a search of Zapatero’s house, but the judge rejected it, considering it neither useful nor proportionate. However, he did order a search of his office. For the Police, Zapatero’s office in Ferraz “would not constitute a mere administrative space.” The agents maintain that “from there it operates as a nucleus for issuing instructions that would be partially channeled” through “different IT media,” mainly through the former president’s secretary. The agents, in preparation for the search of Zapatero’s office, also requested permission to intercept Alcázar’s devices, a measure the judge approved.
During the search of the former president’s office, the Police found a safe that, according to the secretaries, came from the home of Zapatero and his wife, Sonsoles Espinosa. Inside, the agents found several necklaces, bracelets, earrings, rings, watches, and two hard drives.
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