The prosecutor describes the “ambition” of the “corrupt” former commissioner of Barajas accused of receiving luxury cars and watches in exchange for favors

This Thursday, prosecutor Miguel Serrano described Commissioner Carlos Salamanca, former border manager at Madrid's Barajas airport, as a “corrupt” person who, guided by his great “ambition” and love of luxury, accepted gifts and cash from change from doing favors for businessmen. An agent who decided to put aside his “criteria of impartiality and police zeal” to enrich himself and lead a high standard of living. Thanks, among others, to Francisco Menéndez, who worked for the Guinean state oil company Gepetrol and who supposedly showered him with gifts (high-end cars and watches, trips, parties…) so that he would let executives from companies enter Spain without control. that company, linked to the dictatorial regime of Teodoro Obiang.

The representative of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office has drawn this portrait during the final phase of the trial that the National Court held this week against Salamanca and Menéndez. This was the second oral hearing of the Villarejo case, focused this time exclusively on the relationship between these two defendants. Two fundamental figures to understand the judicial investigations against the retired commissioner José Manuel Villarejo, already sentenced in another part of the case to 19 years in prison. The macro summary has as its origin an anonymous complaint that arrived in 2017 and that the public ministry attributed to the businessman, who later dared to collaborate with the investigators: he confessed his own involvement and recounted how he had acted as an intermediary for senior managers at Gepetrol to do dirty work. business with Villarejo; and how Commissioner Salamanca also helped them access the country illegally through Barajas.

This Thursday, the trial was ready for sentencing after the Prosecutor's Office, which initially requested 10 years in prison for Commissioner Salamanca, raised its request for a sentence to 10 years and nine months in prison after attributing a new crime of bribery to him — in addition to the other three crimes that he accused him of in his indictment (another of bribery, prevarication and against the rights of foreign citizens).

For its part, for its “extraordinary” collaboration to reveal Villarejo's plot, Anti-Corruption demands only six months in prison for Menéndez, who was given protection during the investigation. Serrano has highlighted his role as a confessor and has said about him: “He has opened the floodgates of many realities that we do not want to know about. What the Catalan poet Gil de Biedma called 'the other history of the Spanish, the history of the country of demons'.

During his final presentation, prosecutor Serrano described Menéndez and Salamanca as “two poles of important power.” The first represents “business” power: its “main clients are people linked to Gepetrol who have allegedly dedicated themselves to embezzlement from their own country and who, later, have introduced part of those benefits into Spain through it.” Salamanca embodies, on the other hand, institutional power: “he is the head of the Barajas Police station, a nerve center of the economic, political and diplomatic power of the State.” During his statement before the court, Menéndez already admitted that he was always very interested in maintaining that relationship with the police officer because of the influence he had at the airport: “For me it was like knowing God.”

The public ministry has insisted that the businessman approached Salamanca out of simple “economic interest”, although they later managed to maintain a friendly relationship. “He is the commissioner of the border post that they use for their business,” added Serrano, who listed this Thursday the gifts received by the police officer: high-end cars (two Porsches), luxury watches and trips, transfers of a box from the Santiago Bernabéu stadium to watch Real Madrid games… Also, according to Menéndez, he delivered cash to him and paid for private parties and meals in restaurants. “It was 'I help you, you help me'. “You take care of me, I take care of you,” the prosecutor noted.

Flamenco festivals

The parade of witnesses attested to the high standard of living of Salamanca and his family, which does not match the income he earned from his work, according to investigators. Two flamenco artists (the guitarist Tito Losada and the singer Marta Heredia) recounted the usual private parties that he organized at the Casa Piluca restaurant in Madrid, where he also ate and enjoyed long after-dinner conversations regularly, according to the owner of the establishment. “Carlos Salamanca paid us about 200 or 300 euros each time,” explained Heredia, who told how, because of how well he treated them, they went to perform at a birthday party at the commissioner's house: “On that occasion, we were non-profit ”.

Salamanca's son also confirmed the good relationship they had with Menéndez. And how it translated into money and gifts. For example, the businessman gave him 25,000 euros for her wedding. “My father made deliveries to me, which were given to my father through a lawyer. The middle [esa cantidad] in three or four parts. And the last 5,000 euros were given to me by the woman. [de Menéndez]”, the police officer's son explained to the court, adding: “At my wedding I raised 60,000 or 70,000 euros in cash. In the current account, for transfers: 140,000 or 145,000 euros.” A day before, Menéndez had referred to that same marriage: “Salamanca told me: 'My son expects a lot from you.'”

The former commissioner of Barajas, who has defended his innocence throughout the hearing, has taken advantage of his turn to have the last word to do so again this Thursday: “My dedication to the Police Force has been impeccable and spotless. […] “I have felt totally used in this procedure due to the possible exonerations and mitigating circumstances of a person who wanted to avoid his social, fiscal and criminal responsibility,” he said in reference to Menéndez. The agent has even described his former friend's attitude as a “crime of passion”: “That of a person who loves another very much and who, suddenly, due to life's circumstances, sees himself abandoned and wants to throw him out.” everything in the face.”

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