The judge of the National Court José Luis Calama has charged the former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero with the alleged crimes of criminal organization, influence peddling, and forgery in the so-called Plus Ultra case, according to legal sources confirmed to La Vanguardia. The investigator has summoned the socialist for June 2.
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At this moment, the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) of the Police is searching the institutional office of Rodríguez Zapatero, as well as three companies, according to legal sources.
The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, together with the UDEF of the National Police, has been investigating since 2024 the money laundering operation that seems to have cornered the former Prime Minister. The judicial thesis is that the government of Pedro Sánchez granted a loan to Plus Ultra in 2021 for its rescue worth 53 million euros, which the company’s president, Julio Martínez Sola, would have used to repay a loan with three companies of the criminal organization, involved in gold sales.
The contract that the airline would have signed with these companies would provide coverage, in turn, according to the investigation, for the repayments by Plus Ultra. This would be done “on consecutive dates to the receipt of the public aid, to foreign accounts of companies that are part of the criminal organization,” as stated in judicial rulings.
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According to police investigations, that loan came from companies enriched with money from Venezuelan corruption, specifically from acts of embezzlement committed by public officials in Venezuela, through public funds from food distribution programs and gold sales from the Bank of Venezuela. Investigators are trying to gather as much evidence as possible to prove that it is an international money laundering network.
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For months, the investigators of the Plus Ultra case have tracked possible relationships between Julio Martínez Martínez, the former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, or a member of his family. Sources familiar with the case maintain that the socialist indeed maintains or has maintained contacts with this businessman. The suspicions gathered by Anti-Corruption and the judge are that those links have crossed some irregular line.
In December of last year, the UDEF proceeded to arrest four people: the president of the airline Plus Ultra, Julio Martínez Sola; its CEO Roberto Roselli; the businessman Julio Martínez; and a lawyer. The investigation was initiated by Anti-Corruption in the investigating court number 15 of Madrid, led by Esperanza Collazos, but as evidence was gathered, it was transferred to the National Court. The pursuit is for money that may have been laundered in Spain from companies enriched with Venezuelan gold or public aid money from the government of Nicolás Maduro.
The judicial suspicions are that in Spain, besides using the rescue of Plus Ultra, funds may also have been laundered through real estate businesses. One of the aspects being analyzed is the business Martínez could have done with various airlines. He is related to more than a dozen companies. One of these is dedicated to brokerage in the air transport of goods and people, acting as a broker for commercial flights, cargo, passenger, and aviation in general, including private flights.
Another, in which he is listed as sole administrator, refers to the provision of support services, advice, consultancy, and other similar services in the field of organization and management linked to marketing, where the former prime minister could have participated in some way.
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