Interior certifies serious irregularities in the funds reserved to finance the espionage of Bárcenas

Luis Bárcenas, during the first session of the trial for the opaque accounting of the PP held on February 8 at the National Court.Juan Carlos Hidalgo / EFE

The Ministry of the Interior has sent the judge of the National Court Manuel García-Castellón a letter in which it certifies that serious irregularities were committed in the use of reserved funds with the sole objective of financing, in 2013, Operation Kitchen of illegal espionage to the ex-treasurer of the PP Luis Bárcenas.

The document, classified as "secret" and to which EL PAÍS has had access, details that both the payments to Sergio Ríos, Bárcenas' driver who provided information to the plot and accused in the case, such as the acquisition of a pistol and a computer , were never entered in the corresponding expense items.

The response comes after on December 21 the magistrate requested new documentation from the Interior regarding these funds, subject to the law of official secrets, after verifying that the parapolice plot freely disposed of them.

The magistrate wanted to know how the diversion of thousands of euros from an item that moves six million euros a year and that, on paper, is subject to special control measures was concealed.

The judge made the request after verifying that, in a previous request, Interior had not located the documents that justified the deliveries of funds with which the plot paid Bárcenas' driver more than 50,000 euros in cash and bought him a pistol, or acquired a computer for the then Secretary of State for Security, Francisco Martínez, supposedly to consult the information that the plot snatched from Bárcenas.

The magistrate collected in that order his suspicion that those involved in Operation Kitchen not only had reserved funds "without properly completing" the documentation required to do so, but that money could be requested "under the cover of another completely unrelated police investigation to the operation known as Kitchen ".

The magistrate already spoke of "dysfunctions and irregularities."

Interior now confirms the suspicions of the judge.

In its letter, the ministry explains that payments to a person that are made "regularly and successively over time", as was the case with the driver (who was given 2,000 euros per month between July 2013 and September 2015 ), they must be reflected as subscribers to a “permanent collaborator”, whether it be cash, meals, drinks or gifts.

These disbursements are recorded in the account of "operating expenses (account 1.03)", if it is for a specific operation, or in the account of "information expenses (account 2.03)", if it is for the capture of data that may lead to an investigation later.

The letter clarifies that if the collaboration and payments are sporadic, the amount must be consigned as "payment to occasional collaborators (accounts 1.04 and 2.04)".

After analyzing the documentation that is kept in the Reserved Funds Management Center, Interior has verified that none of these were made, since the payments to the driver do not appear in any of these items or "documentary or explicitly referenced".

Something similar happened with the gun and the computer.

Interior details that the acquisition of material can only be charged to the reserved funds when, "due to its urgency and security reasons", it cannot be acquired through the ordinary budgetary items.

In that case, they should be consigned to "account 06", for "acquisition of equipment and materials".

Neither the computer equipment nor the weapon met the requirements nor were they scored.

Looking for deleted messages

The Home Affairs Unit (UAI) has asked Judge Manuel García-Castellón for authorization for Police experts to analyze the telephone number that former Interior Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz gave to the court to verify the possible existence of “data and information [on Operation Kitchen] that could have been erased prior to its delivery to the court ”, according to an official letter to which EL PAÍS has had access.

The police request is made after the court asked the agents for a report "on the proceedings that may be of interest" to carry out on the terminal before returning it to Fernández Díaz. The former minister has already shown his opposition to any new analysis of his phone. He has alleged that the terminal "may contain very sensitive information" due to his former position. Specifically, the Police have proposed that the terminal be sent to its agents assigned to the Telecommunications Legal Interception System (known by its acronym, Sitel), which allows thousands of calls and messages from those investigated to intervene under judicial control. The agents emphasize that all the information extracted from Fernández Díaz's mobile phone would later be analyzed by those responsible for the investigation following the judge's instructions "given the special functions performed by its user." The police emphasize that only "those specific files that are directly linked to the facts under investigation" would be incorporated into the case.

The magistrate asked Fernández Díaz to hand over his mobile phone on November 13, after finishing the tense judicial confrontation that he had maintained with his former 'number two' in the ministry, Francisco Martínez, and in which the former minister denied being the author of the messages sent to the mobile of his former collaborator in which details and instructions on the espionage operation against Bárcenas were collected. The judge then considered that examining the content of the mobile phone was "essential" to confirm whether Fernández Díaz had sent those messages and, therefore, was aware of Operation Kitchen. The minister handed over the terminal more than two months later, on January 22.