How did we get to Zapatero?

The story of how José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was put under siege begins in October 2024 and ends in May 2026. It started as a casual discovery, a “ZP” on a phone, a “Z” that was not enough. In recent years, besides the public – and notorious – links with Venezuela, the former prime minister had been involved in the socialist electoral campaigns as a lifeline for Pedro Sánchez. Nineteen months after that “ZP,” a judge from the National Court ordered the search of his office. How did the Police and, above all, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office find him?

Read more ZP, between the ‘sagacity’ of the UDEF and the love of money

October 2024. French authorities issue a European Investigation Order (EIO), a tool that allows one country to request another to obtain evidence for a criminal case. With this tool, France asks Spain to carry out a series of searches at the homes and offices of several of its suspects. The first two key names: Felipe Baca and Miguel Palomero. The French had detected an alleged money laundering scheme, originating in Venezuela, that was moving money through an offshore corporate network to move corruption money. They had laundered money in France and Spain.

On Palomero’s computer, the police find a hard drive named “crucial” where he stored conversations. His agenda draws attention, but especially one name: Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuelan vice president.

The French suspected that part of the allegedly laundered money came from public aid from the Spanish Government, specifically the bailout of the airline Plus Ultra. The Spanish Police communicated this to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office. Palomero had revealing conversations with another Venezuelan businessman, Danilo Diazgranados. The economic and tax crime unit (UDEF) analyzed those communications and delivered a report in November 2025. It spoke of alleged payments to Spanish officials. But until that report arrived, the matter was stalled for a year. Something was happening.

The timeline reports do not include any reference to conversations about “ZP.” They keep it in writing. But from that report, a race against time begins. The Prosecutor’s Office files a complaint, setting the clock to mount the investigation within six months.

In that first report, the UDEF analyzed the conversations and companies of both suspects. On one hand, Palomero had links with Rodolfo Reyes, then the main shareholder of Plus Ultra. They talked about the necessary arrangements to achieve the company’s bailout. On the other hand, bank and corporate movements of Diazgranados were analyzed. They discovered he had a company, Agropecuaria Lucena, which made payments for various jobs to Análisis Relevante and Whathefav.

Those two companies would be linked to his “ZP.” But it was still too early. They had to keep pulling the thread. A report was requested from the Tax Agency (AEAT), which was delivered on December 30, 2025, a month later. Tax inspectors discovered that the administrators of Whathefav were Alba and Laura Rodríguez Espinosa. And behind Análisis Relevante (AR) was Julio Martínez Martínez. In open sources, it was easy to link him to “ZP” and people in his circle. It was still early.

Read more Former politicians active in the private sector rise sharply in two years

When the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office saw the AEAT’s conclusion, it had what it was looking for. As the payee of AR appeared José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Almost 500,000 euros over four fiscal years. On one hand, they had that a Venezuelan businessman was paying a payee of the former president and, in turn, was paying his daughters. And that this magnate, in turn, had conversations with a lawyer in which they talked about cash payments to officials. And that this lawyer maintained conversations with the top person at Plus Ultra. And that Martínez also received payments from the airline. The perfect fit, but it was not yet the time.

There was no time to lose. The case was reopened by a judge who had already investigated the Plus Ultra bailout but had archived it. Now it was different. She knew there was a bigger catch, so the investigating judge Esperanza Collazos ordered, in mid-December, the arrest of the two top executives of Plus Ultra, Roberto Roselli and Julio Martínez Sola, and also the arrest of Julio Martínez Martínez, from whom documentation and the phone were seized. Additionally, a report was requested from Sepblac’s financial intelligence unit – responsible for money laundering – which arrived in 15 days. On February 16, the UDEF was already providing a new report. The agents made the first written reference to Zapatero as a possible influence on the investigated organization.

Just one day after the UDEF report, Anti-Corruption delivered a new document to the judge. It already identified, without ambiguity, “Z” as Zapatero and placed Martínez as his “front man.” It had escalated too much, and the investigating judge got rid of it and sent it to the National Court with a recusal order dated February 23, which named as suspects, among others, the former prime minister and his two daughters.

On March 3, the National Court judge took the case and declared it secret. In just three months, the UDEF had analyzed the phone terminals of those arrested in December and the documentation. They were already prepared to state that Rodríguez Zapatero was the “leader” of an influence network. On May 19, the judge ordered the search of his office, beginning his judicial ordeal.