The National Court charges the former head of the Civil Guard in the fight against drug trafficking in the Strait

On the left, in uniform, Lieutenant Colonel David Oliva, after being decorated by the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, in the summer of 2021.

A lieutenant colonel and two lieutenants of the Civil Guard stationed in the Strait area have been summoned as accused by the judge of the National Court Alejandro Abascal for crimes of bribery and disclosure of secrets, according to what several sources from the armed institute have confirmed to EL PAÍS .

Among the three investigated is Lieutenant Colonel David Oliva, who was the head of the Coordination Body for Operations against Drug Trafficking (OCON-Sur) of the Civil Guard, an elite unit made up of 150 agents that was created by the Ministry of the Interior. in 2018 to combat the arrival of drug shipments to the Andalusian coast and which was restructured last September.

The investigation that has led to the summons of the three commanders occurs after the Internal Affairs Service (SAI) detected that Lieutenant Colonel Oliva was pressuring a lieutenant from this group, specialized in the fight against corruption within the armed institute .

Oliva wanted me to inform him about the content of some investigations prosecuted in the National Court on suspecting that a group of drug traffickers had denounced him for alleged irregularities and he could be being investigated.

According to the sources consulted, the lieutenant, who is another of the defendants, agreed to the request of his superior and provided him with confidential information.

For this reason, they are accused of revealing a secret.

In exchange, the command offered the lieutenant a position in the OCON, which he directed at the time, taking advantage of the fact that he wanted to be assigned to Andalusia, where he is from.

Hence the accusation of bribery for which they have been cited.

After knowing the facts, Judge Abascal opened a separate piece in the summary in which Internal Affairs participated and which is the one in which the two lieutenants have declared this Tuesday as investigated.

This Wednesday, Lieutenant Colonel Oliva will do it.

The imputation of the command of the Civil Guard occurs seven months after the minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska restructured the OCON.

During the four years that it has been active, this unit has participated in most of the major operations that have led to the arrest of the big hashish drug traffickers on the southern coast of Spain and a spectacular increase in seized caches, reaching to triple the amounts seized before it came into operation.

His results were recognized by Grande-Marlaska himself, who in June 2021 decorated the then commander Oliva, who was later promoted to lieutenant colonel.

After the changes in the OCON, this command was assigned to the Malaga Command, where it was currently located.

The investigation by the National Court also takes place at a particularly delicate moment for the Civil Guard, after the indictment of two high-ranking officers, both retired, in separate corruption cases: the so-called Mediator and Barracks cases

For the first, Lieutenant General Francisco Espinosa is in preventive detention, accused of bribery, influence peddling, belonging to a criminal group and money laundering for his alleged involvement in a corruption scheme based in the Canary Islands that was dedicated to charging commissions from businessmen, mainly from the livestock and dairy sector, in exchange for avoiding sanitary inspections, expediting and unlocking European aid files or making it easier for them to obtain contracts.

The former PSOE deputy Juan Bernando Fuentes Curbelo,

, also appears as being investigated in this plot .

In the

two high-ranking officers of the armed institute are listed as being investigated, among them also Lieutenant General Pedro Vázquez Jarava.

This lieutenant general has been indicted since January last year accused of influence peddling, administrative malfeasance, bribery, document falsification and embezzlement for the alleged manipulation of nearly 200 maintenance works in barracks, valued at 3.3 million euros, in 13 commands.

Lieutenant General Vázquez Jarava allegedly called the heads of these commands to order them to hire a builder friend of his, from whom he allegedly received gifts.