The Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard points out in a recent report, accessed by La Vanguardia, that “the ultimate goal” of the alleged plot led by Santos Cerdán and Leire Díez to “destabilize or obstruct” judicial proceedings opened against the PSOE was “to protect the interests at stake” of the socialist party and, directly or indirectly, of the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez.
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The judge of the National Court Santiago Pedraz, who adopts the UCO’s thesis, places Cerdán at the top of the organization, making “strategic decisions” in the course of the plot and participating in its benefits. Díez would be placed at a lower level. The first at a higher level; the second, at an executive level, to which more people were added “depending on the needs of the group.” All of them, explains the UCO, “acting jointly, carried out this activity in a coordinated manner, maintaining unity of action and direction, personified in this case under the figure of Cerdán.”
From what has been analyzed so far, the UCO points out that it was Cerdán, as number two of the PSOE, who would have made “the party’s own structure available to the criminal structure,” which from its beginnings “bore the cost of the investigated activity, allowing it to use its personnel for the development of administrative functions, providing its premises for holding meetings, or assuming the cost of logistics (travel, vehicle rental, …) of some of its members. In this context, payments from the PSOE would have been made, “through the issuance of false invoicing” destined for Díez amounting to 22,500 euros. The Civil Guard points out that up to two companies would have been interposed “with the sole purpose of covering up the origin of the funds.”
Regarding the lines of action deployed, the UCO highlights the ability of certain investigated persons to offer economic or procedural benefits or jobs within the public administration, in exchange for providing compromising information about third parties, especially regarding members of the Judiciary, Prosecutor’s Office, and the Civil Guard, responsible for investigating cases affecting the PSOE. The UCO states that, recurrently, the so-called PSOE plumber “coordinates the actions of the members of the alleged organization, gives instructions, assigns roles or tasks,” but does so “subject to the decisions” of Cerdán, with whom she maintains “constant communication” concerning the investigated facts, usually materialized through face-to-face meetings held at the PSOE headquarters.
In the office of lawyer Ismael Oliver, allegedly involved in the plot with the management of complaints against the UCO that later appeared published in the media in favor of their aims, a commission note from the PSOE would have appeared that had been signed with the party “in a merely instrumental way,” with the purpose “of simulating a professional relationship between the parties and serving as a means for the political formation to materialize” payments destined for the lawyer.
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“In this regard, the funds released by the PSOE,” explains the UCO according to said commission, “would have been used to finance the allegedly criminal activity attributed to the organization.” The Civil Guard also attributes to Oliver the alleged economic offer to modify the testimony of a witness against the interests of the organization. Also, having made his law office available to channel payments to Díez from the PSOE through the simulation of a commercial relationship.
The search of former senator Gaspar Zarrías
Agents found 19,850 euros in bundles of bills in a trunk and an envelope
The Civil Guard points out that the company Zaño Sociedad Consultores SL, of which Zarrías is administrator and sole partner, would have been used by the plot as a front company to channel part of the remuneration that the PSOE would have paid to Díez. The former socialist member, as the UCO records, would have formalized her link with said company through the instrumental signing of an employment contract, with which a labor relationship would have been simulated during the months of June, July, August, and September of 2024, having received in this period a net amount totaling 16,000 euros, in four payslips with a net amount of 4,000 euros each. The order for these payments would have been given by the former PSOE Organization Secretary, Santos Cerdán.
The UCO found on May 27 at the house of the former vice president of the Andalusian Government Gaspar Zarrías — allegedly involved in Leire Díez’s plot — 19,850 euros. The agents found inside a black bag, inside a trunk in the living room, 200 bills of 50 euros (10,000 euros) and 205 of 20 euros (6,100 euros). In one of the rooms, the UCO also found a white envelope containing 75 bills of 50 euros (3,750 euros).
That same day, the UCO took from a locked basement of the PSOE national headquarters, on Ferraz street, a couple of agendas and a notebook with handwritten notes, two hard drives, and a laptop.
