The plot of the 'Villarejo case' faces its second trial

The National Court begins to write the second chapter of the long series of trials that are coming in the Villarejo case, the macro investigation that revolves around retired commissioner José Manuel Villarejo and his collaborators. The court has set for this Monday the start of the second oral hearing held on the corrupt network. Although, in this case, Villarejo is not among the accused because the Prosecutor's Office focuses exclusively on Commissioner Carlos Salamanca and businessman Francisco Menéndez Rubio, who have been prosecuted for plotting a plot to facilitate the illegal entry into Spain of senior managers. from an Equatorial Guinea company in exchange for gifts and cash.

The first trial of Villarejo case, whose sentence was known just half a year ago, was held between October 2021 and September 2022. Retired Commissioner Villarejo, who did sit on the bench on that occasion, emerged from that oral hearing with a sentence of 19 years in prison —a resolution that the Prosecutor's Office has appealed to increase the sentence. The National Court found him guilty of carrying out three espionage orders (Iron, Land and Pintor projects) against individuals. Iron focused on the hiring of the police officer by the Herrero & Asociados law firm to spy on a rival firm. Land addressed the family war of the heirs of Luis García-Cereceda, the developer who built the luxury development La Finca, in Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid). And Pintor deals with how the businessman Juan Muñoz Tamara, husband of the presenter Ana Rosa Quintana, signed Villarejo to illegally obtain data from a former partner from whom he claimed a debt. Villarejo has more trials pending for other parts of the macro case.

Starting this Monday, however, the National Court will address a very different issue. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office now puts on the table the accusation against Commissioner Salamanca and Menéndez, two fundamental figures to understand the investigations of the Villarejo case. The summary has as its origin an anonymous complaint that reached the Prosecutor's Office in 2017 and that the public ministry would attribute to the businessman, who later dared to collaborate with the investigators (thus confessing his own involvement) and who provided the first documents that were used to open the case—which, as a result of the search at Villarejo's house, grew with numerous lines of investigation still to be judged thanks to the enormous amount of material seized. “[En aquel momento], Menéndez shows us the fear he has. The first thing he tells us is: 'Do you know what you're getting into?' recalled the first prosecutor in the case, Ignacio Stampa, in a podcast published in 2023.

Menéndez, who worked for the Guinean state oil company Gepetrol, recounted how he had acted as an intermediary for senior managers of this company to do dirty business with Villarejo. And he added how Commissioner Salamanca, who was head of Borders at the Barajas airport and a friend of Villarejo, also helped them access the country illegally.

High-end cars (two Porsches), luxury watches and trips, transfers of a box at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium to watch Real Madrid matches… All of this adds to the list of gifts that Commissioner Salamanca received to open the doors of Spain to Guinean businessmen, who entered the country through the Barajas airport without any type of control, as detailed by the investigating judge Manuel García-Castellón and the Prosecutor's Office. The public ministry requests 10 years in prison for the National Police agent. For his “extraordinary” collaboration to reveal the plot, Anti-Corruption requests only six months in prison for Menéndez, whom the justice system gave protection during the investigation.

With this hearing, the National Court resumes the judicial course, which resumes after the holiday break. But it will not be the only one that attracts the attention of the media due to its significance, since the Provincial Court of Madrid also continues from this Monday with the trial on the origin of the fortune of Rodrigo Rato, former managing director of the IMF (Fund International Monetary) and former vice president of the Government with the PP, which began in December.

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