The Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard has sent to the judge of Almería Eduardo Martínez Gamero, who is investigating the case on the alleged existence of a corruption plot in the Provincial Council of this province, a report in which he points out that the former president of this organization, the popular, allegedly used two brothers to launder the bribes of cash that he supposedly received for the rigging of contracts. Among them, The police document, advanced by eldiario.es and to which EL PAÍS has had access, focuses on the mortgage of a property he owns, whose installments were paid from an account in which his sister María Rosario and the parents of both, now deceased, appeared as holders.
The investigation highlights that in this account in the name of the relatives of the former president of the Provincial Council (he resigned from this position after his arrest) “cash income of unknown origin would have materialized that would have had the purpose of supporting the amount of the installments of a mortgage whose owner was” the politician. In this sense, the UCO highlights that, in fact, after analyzing the accounts in the name of the former high public official, it has confirmed that he “would not have paid” any of the installments of that bank loan, which supports that the money for this came from the deposits of his relatives.
“All these elements […] allow us to infer in an indicative way that this operation could have been used for integration into the legal financial circuit [blanqueo] of a series of cash funds of unknown origin, which could be given by the criminal activity that Javier Aureliano García Molina had supposedly been carrying out,” the police document emphasizes. The investigation attributes to the former leader of the Almería PP, on provisional release while the investigation of the case continues, the alleged commission of the crimes of criminal organization, prevarication, fraud in contracting, embezzlement of public funds, bribery and money laundering.
Investigators have also detected alleged irregularities in an agricultural cooperative linked to Juan Carlos García Molina, brother of the former president of the Provincial Council, and which had supposedly allowed the latter to “channel a series of funds to banking products” in his name through what they describe as a “simulated operation” through “different concatenated transfers.” After receiving this report, Judge Martínez Gamero has issued an order in which he announces a new round of statements as defendants of those cited by the UCO, although without setting a date for it.
already called “eye-catching” […] the use of cash by a public employee like Javier Aureliano García”, as well as the unknown origin of part of the funds he managed and that had allowed him, precisely, to meet the mortgage payments on a property. In that judicial resolution, the judge highlighted that in his sister’s house, the agents found .
“Personal” trip with public money
In a second report also incorporated into the case and now known, the UCO also includes the existence of an alleged “personal” trip by Javier Aureliano García allegedly paid for with public funds. Specifically, one that he carried out with his former chief of staff, María del Mar González, in Madrid, between June 26 and 27, 2025, five months before his arrest. According to the Civil Guard, this trip was paid for by the Provincial Council of Almería because they justified it by a meeting of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) which, however, they did not attend. The invoice, which was issued for an amount of 1,892 euros, included plane tickets for the Granada-Madrid-Granada route for both (662 euros per person) and hotel and breakfast expenses (282 euros for each room).
At that time, García headed the Commission of Presidents of Provincial Councils, Councils and Island Councils of the FEMP. However, the investigations reveal that, “apparently, neither Javier Aureliano nor his chief of staff would have carried out any type of professional activity or official event in Madrid, but rather the trip, from the initial moments of its organization, would have responded to a personal need of the attendees.”
In fact, the institutional agenda of the then president of the Almería Provincial Council did not include any act, event or meeting related to the FEMP “or anything that is related to Madrid”, as the UCO highlights in its report. He also highlights that the same occurs with the publications observed on social networks and open sources: “Nothing is publicly recorded.” On the contrary, he emphasizes that he did leave a record on Instagram of the trip he took in July of that year and that the rest of the 2025 agenda does include “numerous entries” in which “reference is made to events or acts related to the FEMP.”
The UCO agents, who at the time of that trip had already tapped the telephone communications of the then president of the Provincial Council, explain that from the conversations between the two it is clear that she had planned a trip to Madrid for a “personal matter, an apparently medical appointment”, for June 27, 2025 and wanted him to accompany her. “I’m not talking about tomorrow, which is work, I’m talking about the weekend,” González told García, alluding to another trip, this one to attend the Autonomous Executive Committee of the Popular Party of Andalusia in Andújar (Jaén). By “contraposition”, the UCO deduces that the one scheduled for June 26 and 27 “would not be for work reasons.”
After that, García asked his secretary to buy him two plane tickets and reserve two hotel rooms for him, one of those “of a lifetime.” “Do we put FEMP?” she asked. “Sure,” he replied. “Well, yes (…) because you have the meeting at the FEMP, what else am I going to say if not,” the secretary added.
Once in Madrid, the UCO indicates that García and his chief of staff dedicated themselves to talking about “the plans” until dinner time. “It’s half past five, if you want to go for a walk, whatever,” he told her. Thanks to the location shown by the calls he made during those hours, investigators affirm that that day García “would not have gone to the FEMP headquarters nor spoken about any type of work activity.” According to the content of those conversations, he was “wandering around” and went to El Corte Inglés to try on pants and shirts. At 9:00 p.m. on June 26, they had dinner together at a restaurant in the center of Madrid, from which they left at 1:04 a.m. to return to the hotel. The dinner would have cost them 397 euros, which he paid.
