The Prosecutor’s Office of Catalonia takes a qualitative step in the investigation of the so-called Operation Catalunya, unifying the investigation into the alleged espionage of the former chief prosecutor of the community Martín Rodríguez Sol with the extensive denunciation by Major Josep Lluís Trapero, ex-head of the Mossos d’Esquadra, has recently presented for the maneuvers to involve him in drug trafficking operations, orchestrated by ex-commissioner José Manuel Villarejo and other former high-ranking police officers protecting themselves with illegal actions against Catalan independence. The information about the two affairs and which triggered the investigation and the complaint were published by La Vanguardia and ElDiario.es on January 16 and 17.
The decision opens the door to the fact that many of those who consider themselves affected by the dirty war against independence, deployed during the government of Mariano Rajoy (2011-2018) by high officials of the Ministry of the Interior and police commands, can try join and take their cases to court. Something that has so far been impossible in the various courts in which they have tried, despite the overwhelming documents, written and audio, and testimony that this dirty war took place on a very large scale.
The court that accumulates most of this evidence is number 6 of the National Court, headed by the controversial magistrate Manuel García-Castellón, who, despite the numerous cases he has open against Villarejo, has systematically refused to enter in operations linked to politics. His argument is that he is only interested in the private business that Villarejo did while he was a police officer, and he dismisses all police activities as good simply because they were not commercial.
Trapero has submitted his complaint to the Prosecutor’s Office of Barcelona, ??but those responsible will raise it to the Superior of Catalonia, which is led by Francisco Bañeres, according to sources informed about the procedure.
In the case of ex-prosecutor Rodríguez Sol, it was the same Superior Prosecutor of Catalonia that announced the opening of an investigation after La Vanguardia and ElD iario.es published a document from the internal affairs unit of the police in which the Ministry of the Interior was informed of a proposal for people to be investigated in Catalonia. And the aim of the police charges was to look for “links between the superior prosecutor and the Unió Democràtica de Catalunya (UDC) party and the commissions managed by the lawyers of the aforementioned party”. As is known, in other similar investigations it was not necessary to find evidence of anything. Fake dossiers were fabricated and sent to addicted media and even served to open groundless court cases.
In the case of Trapero, La Vanguardia and ElDiario.es published an informative note sent by Villarejo to the Minister of the Interior, Jorge Fernández Díaz, and to the direction of the police, which involved the then head of the Mossos d’Esquadra in a drug trafficking plot.
In this case, the police tried to merge their businesses and private activities with those related to Operation Catalunya. That is why they sought the complicity of the judge in charge of the court of inquiry number 1 in Barcelona, ??Joaquín Aguirre – who also directs the controversial investigation known as operation Voloh, in which he intends to accuse the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont of high treason for the his contacts with Russia –, who maintained a tense relationship with the high-ranking police officer, to impeach him. It was the Macedonia case, which after an endless investigation of thirteen years ended with the filing for all the police and the confidant, prosecuted by Judge Aguirre.
Most of the briefing notes drawn up in those years by Villarejo and the deputy operational directorate of the police were sent to the Minister of the Interior, Jorge Fernández Díaz, through his second, Francisco Martínez, first as chief of staff and later as secretary of state of the ministry.
