The Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard also appeared yesterday at the headquarters of the armed institute, in the center of Madrid. It did so to collect the documentation of some internal files that were opened against several agents for alleged leaks to members of the network that intended to sabotage investigations related to the PSOE. Interestingly, the group of civil guards who burst into the building of the General Directorate was led by Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Balas, the officer whom the “plumbing” of Ferraz, headed by the former Secretary of Organization Santos Cerdán and the former member Leire Díez, wanted to see “better dead” so that “he would not become the executioner of everyone.”
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The police action sought files opened against agents for having passed data to the PSOE “plumber”
According to police sources, the reserved information – as internal investigations in the force are known – on which the National Court judge Santiago Pedraz has focused were archived. None resulted in the opening of disciplinary proceedings against the police commanders investigating the cases involving Ferraz or the Government. In recent years, the UCO has been at the forefront of investigations against the former number twos of the PSOE, José Luis Ábalos and Santos Cerdán, against the wife and brother of the Prime Minister, Begoña Gómez and David Sánchez, and the former Attorney General of the State, Álvaro García Ortiz.
The judge attributes to the network the spread in the media of the term “Patriotic UCO” to undermine its image
Pedraz’s intention with this move is twofold. On the one hand, to find out if from within the force, some unruly agents were in contact with the network to provide sensitive information to discredit the UCO. One has already been identified: Juan Sánchez Yepes, who was in the unit. And on the other hand, more deeply, to find out if those preliminary reports to the file were opened, by orders from above, against agents involved in cases uncomfortable for the PSOE with the sole purpose of pressuring them with possible sanctions. Hence, in addition to collecting documentation, Balas took statements from his colleagues in the Disciplinary Regime unit, those in charge of internal affairs, to determine who ordered their opening, how far the investigation went, and on what grounds they were closed. According to ministerial sources, the Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, was aware of the opening of the reserved information due to the alleged leaks opened by the Director General of the Civil Guard, Mercedes González.
The internal investigations, motivated by the Director General, were archived: there were no sanctions
With the evidence gathered so far, Pedraz explains in his order that those investigated in this network, which escalated after possible payments from Ferraz to the “plumber” Díez were detected, would have carried out actions aimed at “disturbing the normal development of the UCO’s actions” in judicial proceedings through various means. One, by filing complaints with the Attorney General’s Office, which they disseminated through the media making the “derogatory and contaminating title” of the “Patriotic UCO” grow. And two, by sowing suspicion before the Director of the Civil Guard, who ultimately motivated the opening of internal investigations. In this case, the judge highlights that the agents were accused of leaking WhatsApp messages between José Luis Ábalos and other PSOE leaders, published in the press, despite “knowing, with certainty” that they had been published by the former Minister of Transport.
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Pedraz also points out that the network would have collected personal and reserved data and information (something secret by law) of the police commanders involved in the various judicial cases around the PSOE and the Government. The purpose was to use that sensitive information about themselves to “neutralize them.” In the audio in which Díez was heard wishing to finish off Balas, Alejandro Hamlyn, a businessman investigated in the Hydrocarbons case in the National Court, asked her for data about him. After that conversation was published, the investigated party acknowledged the authenticity of the audios but framed them in a journalistic investigation about tax fraud in fuel marketing.
For the judge, a note by Commander Rubén Villalba, charged in the National Court for the Koldo case, is also “revealing.” This civil guard, who admitted two meetings with Díez in court, wrote that the PSOE “plumber” proposed that the National Police take his statement “as a protected witness” to attack the Civil Guard, and specifically the UCO. The commander, in his agendas, summarized Díez’s approaches in a single phrase: “Trying to dismantle the GC.”
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