The judge of the National Court Ismael Moreno continues to advance the investigation into the awarding of contracts for masks in the so-called Koldo plot. The instructor has ordered Adif and Ports of the State – which depend on the Ministry of Transport chaired by Óscar Puente – and the general sub-directorate of Planning and Management of Infrastructures and Media of the Secretary of State for Security – dependent on the Ministry of the Interior – that they give him a “copy of the contents of all the mailboxes and folders of the corporate e-mail of a dozen high-ranking officials. In addition, it requires a copy with all the documentation they have about the contracts under suspicion.
The periods of the mails that the researchers intend to analyze include – although the extent varies according to the cases – from January 1, 2020, when society was not yet aware that a virus would cause total confinement, until February 1 of this year, a couple of weeks before the operation of alleged corruption exploded, which captured the national political shock.
Ports de l’Estat and Adif awarded mask contracts in March 2020 for around 20 million euros and 12.5 million, respectively, to Soluciones de Gestión, the front company of the plot, behind which the alleged mastermind Juan Carlos Cueto. As for Adif, he requests the emails of his boss, Isabel Pardo de Vera; from Martín José Navarro, current director of human resources; of Jesús Ángel Díaz, deputy director of occupational risk prevention, and of Michaux Miranda, general director of people management, as recorded in an interlocutory that appears in the summary to which La Vanguardia has had access.
In addition, the judge requests from Ports de l’Estat the emails of Francisco Toledo, who was then its president; of Álvaro Sánchez Manzanares, who remains general secretary; Aránzazu de Miguel, head of the recruitment area, and Belén Caballero, head of the legal department. The investigators accumulate indications that the interlocutor of Koldo García, the former adviser of José Luis Ábalos who gives his name to the plot, was Sánchez Manzanares “for several reasons”.
As for the Interior, Judge Moreno demands a copy of the emails of Dani Belmar, who was in charge of the sub-directorate to which the request is directed.
With the ministry that at the time was already led by Fernando Grade-Marlaska, the alleged corrupt plot signed a contract in April 2020 for a value of 3.5 million euros. Belmar, commissioner of the National Police, already explained to the investigators that the companies awarded the contracts emerged from a meeting in which a “range of possibilities” was put on the table in view of “the shortage of medical equipment” that was there at that time.
