The central operational unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard points to its own director general, Mercedes González, as one of the channels that Leire Díez’s plot would have to torpedo uncomfortable investigations for the environment of President Pedro Sánchez. The file, accessed by La Vanguardia, reveals that the PSOE “plumber” met, at least, on three occasions with González, whom she urged to initiate an internal investigation in the UCO – for alleged leaks – to intimidate the senior commanders. Just a week ago, the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, stood up for the top official of the armed institute, assuring that “she had not had any meeting with Leire Díez in any terms.”
The UCO places the relationship between Díez and González before the latter’s appointment, in September 2024, when she gave up her seat as a deputy in Congress to return to direct the Civil Guard – she had already done so in 2023. The meetings confirmed by the UCO are from September 30 and December 20, 2024, and April 2, 2025. The agents say they have indications that the former socialist member “would be sending” to González “information obtained” within the framework of the criminal organization led by Santos Cerdán.
A witness denounces pressure on the unit not to be “proactive” in investigations into the PSOE environment
The timeline indicated by the investigators is as follows: on May 9, 2025, after WhatsApp messages between Sánchez and the former PSOE organization secretary José Luis Ábalos were published in a media outlet, Díez “would have bet a meal” with González that “the leaks” came from the UCO. Between that day and the 14th of the same month, an investigation was opened within the Civil Guard, not knowing who decreed it. González, who is not charged, had automatic message deletion activated with the “plumber”.
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When the UCO appeared on May 27 at the Civil Guard headquarters, what it requested was all the documentation related to that internal investigation for the alleged leak that was ultimately archived. In addition, the agents took statements from three senior commanders of the armed institute. One of them stated that the file was opened, despite the fact that the deputy operational director (DAO), General Manuel Llamadas, González’s right hand, “was aware” that the UCO “could not be the origin of those leaks,” since conversations that took place after the dates when the former Minister of Transport’s mobiles were seized came to light. A version later confirmed by a third agent.
Another of the commanders who testified, the head of the Judicial Police, went further when asked if he had received any “political pressure” not to investigate allegedly criminal acts linked to the PSOE. He pointed out that in the summer of 2024 with the previous director of the Civil Guard, Leonardo Marcos, “directives” were given so that the UCO would not be “proactive” in those investigations: “low profile,” letting the judicial authority “take the initiative.” In addition, the same witness referred to a meeting in which Marcos stated that a UCO official letter regarding the emails then surrounding the president’s brother, David Sánchez, was “totally prospective and malicious,” stating that “the credibility” of the Civil Guard “was at rock bottom.” The former director of the Civil Guard, according to this witness, urged the commanders to finish the report on the emails of the brother of the head of government within a week to conclude “that there is nothing.”
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