The Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard points out that the “ultimate purpose” of the operation deployed by the former PSOE militant Leire Díez between 2024 and 2025 under the orders, supposedly, of the former Secretary of Organization of the party Santos Cerdán was “to protect the interests that directly or indirectly affect the Government or its president.” This is literally stated in the case – to whose summary EL PAÍS has had access – led by the judge of the National Court Santiago Pedraz and which holds both Díez and Cerdán, the businessman Javier Pérez-Dolset, the former senator Gaspar Zarrías, the PSOE manager Ana Fuentes, in addition to two lawyers accused of carrying out an illegal operation to hinder the actions of officials fighting against corruption. The investigation also includes an alleged operation within the Civil Guard itself through which internal files were opened to the agents who were investigating corruption.
The statements of 16 witnesses in the offices of the armed institute between May 27 and 29, 2025 and the chain of WhatsApp messages and other encrypted applications of Leire Díez feed the summary and point to the fact that the former socialist militant presented herself as a person very close to the director of the Civil Guard, Mercedes González, with contacts within the State Attorney General’s Office and with a kind of assignment from the Socialist Party to “clean up” what was related to the sewers that could affect the President of the Executive, Pedro Sánchez.
The documentation included in this case reveals that the UCO is investigating whether Leire Díez, with the help of Sánchez’s former chief of staff before coming to the Government, Juan Manuel Serrano, sought work for the complainant of the anti-corruption prosecutor José Grinda in exchange for her continuing to insist on her lawsuits; or that the former socialist militant exchanged messages with Commissioner José Manuel Villarejo to try to solve some of his judicial problems in exchange for information about PP corruption.
The agents took a statement from the civil guard Rubén Villalba (currently accused in the Koldo case), to several businessmen in the hydrocarbon sector, including Carmen Pano (who has stated in court that she handed over 90,000 euros to Ferraz), to José Manuel Villarejo’s lawyer, to the digital administrator Free Chronicle (which the agents believe was used to distribute news that benefited the PSOE in exchange for an advertising campaign) and three generals of the Civil Guard who detailed some interference in their work last year against corruption, for example, a request from the chief of the General Staff to have all the guards who were investigating matters related to the president of the Government be broken down by name.
The civil guard Villalba, currently suspended from employment and salary, acknowledged having had two meetings with Leire Díez in which she supposedly stated that the director of the armed institute was “waiting for the feedback of said meeting.” According to him, she went so far as to say that the next Deputy Operational Director (DAO) of the force “was going to be appointed by her.” Villalba described that while in the first meeting, in which she wanted information about the UCO agents, she only mentioned that she had access to “those higher up in the Government,” in the second she described that she could access the “one of the party” or to the “one of the Government.”
One of those attending this meeting, Francisco Ortega (who was an escort between 2003 and 2011 in Navarra and the Basque Country and who is a friend of Koldo García from those years), explained to the UCO that Díez spoke of his relationship with Serrano as “close” and added that he had “a very good personal relationship” with the director of the armed institute, “going so far as to state that he dealt with her.” According to Ortega’s statement, he cut off all relations with the former militant when the famous video came out in which she met with the businessman investigated in hydrocarbons Alejandro Hamlyn in which she said “I love Balas”, in reference to UCO Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Balas.
The agents also heard as a witness Joaquín Parra, a hydrocarbon businessman between 2017 and 2019 and president of CD Badajazo between 2019 and 2021. Parra explained that businessman Javier Pérez-Dolset contacted him because he had also been a “victim of the Villarejo case” and had a first meeting in the summer of 2024 at the businessman’s house. According to this witness, Leire Díez presented herself as a person who could help him and who literally said “when you suffer injustices yourself, when they accuse your wife and your brother, then you realize that you have to clean up.” From that moment on, they created a WhatsApp group called “vacations and trips” that included Leire, Dolset, Parra and a former judge who now practices law named Luis José Sénz de Tejada. “Leire expressed that they were going to contact a third party, the patient understands. [Parra] that with the president of the government to agree that Sáenz de Tejada would assume the legal assistance of his brother, but that the latter would have rejected it and would have decided to continue with the lawyer that the brother had at that time,” transcribes the UCO.
According to this statement, one of the meetings took place in an apartment on 36 Diego de León Street, which was “a PSOE safe house for holding meetings.” Parra explained that both the former militant and Dolset were interested in removing the chief anti-corruption prosecutor, Alejandro Luzón, from his position, because he supposedly disobeyed “orders” from his superior. [que entonces era el fiscal general del Estado Álvaro García Ortiz] upon releasing Víctor de Aldama in 2024. “Leire made reference to the fact that the Prosecutor’s Office depended on the Government and that prosecutors had to follow orders from their superiors. In this regard, Leire expressed that the client could be helped [a Parra] withdrawing the accusation in the cases that affected him”, also related to hydrocarbon matters.
Members of the UCO took a statement from MS, the complainant of former Anti-Corruption Prosecutor José Grinda, and asked her how she had gotten her job at the Residuos Urbanos company in Jaén. She replied that she was sending her resume, although they later showed her some messages that appear in the summary in which Leire Díez asks her directly: “Hello treasure, how are you? Hey, did they call you to work?” The UCO also seized messages from Díez with Juan Francisco Serrano: “Hello Juanfran! Hey, the girl from Alcaudete who was the victim of the prosecutor’s abuse has not been called to work. Do you insist that they employ her?” To this the current deputy answers: “hello, I’ll say it again.” According to the woman, the civil procedure she initiated against the prosecutor, which finally ended in an acquittal for him, was not paid for by her but by two other people whom she cited.
Investigators have also collected messages from the former socialist militant with Villarejo in which he told her in November 2025: “I fulfilled what you asked me… stay alert… tomorrow or the next day… the focus can now also go to me.” The UCO has intercepted a sheet headed with the word “agreement” supposedly addressed to Villarejo that begins by saying: “They will notify you to go to an office where you will meet a person from the State Attorney General’s Office and Leire (the one in charge). You must be prepared for the meeting.”
