At 08:00 sharp on February 20, a lawyer from the Administration of Justice and two agents from the Civil Guard broke into one of the apartments that Koldo García supposedly bought on the coast of Benidorm (Alicante) with the bites that charged for facilitating access to administration contracts for the supply of masks during the worst of the pandemic.
There they ran into María Icíar Izaguirre, the mother of the former advisor of former minister José Luis Ábalos, to whom they identified themselves before beginning to search the property, where only two cell phones were involved.
More juicy would be the visit they made next to another of the family houses, in the same building: there, after speaking by telephone with another of those involved (Joseba García, Koldo's brother), they found 5,000 euros (100 50 bills). euros) hidden in a helmet kept on a shelf;
and another 850 (17 50 bills), inside the case of an electronic tablet.
However, “inside the safe” of the home there was “nothing,” as highlighted by the minutes included in the summary opened in the National Court for the
Koldo case
.
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The judge of the 'Koldo case' intervenes in the emails of a dozen senior Transport and Interior officials
Tuesday and Wednesday of last week were two hectic days.
After months of secret investigation, on February 19, Judge Ismael Moreno authorized the searches of the houses, companies and warehouses of the main suspects.
The magistrate gave the green light to the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard so that, for 32 hours (from 7:00 a.m. on February 20 to 3:00 p.m. on the 21st), they would search for all types of incriminating documentation, mobile phones, credit cards. memory, computers, hard drives, diaries, notebooks, photographs, bank statements...
According to the summary documentation, to which EL PAÍS had access, the judge authorized entry into almost thirty properties in the provinces of Madrid, Alicante, Cáceres, León, Bizkaia, Zaragoza and Murcia.
Among others, in the house of Koldo García and his partner from Polop de la Marina (Alicante);
in the two aforementioned apartments in Benidorm that are registered in the name of Joseba García;
in six properties of Víctor de Aldama, president of Zamora CF;
at the Madrid home of Juan Carlos Cueto, another of the key businessmen of the alleged corrupt network;
at the Zaragoza headquarters of the company Soluciones de Gestión, the epicenter of the plot;
and in the home of Íñigo Rotaeche, representative of this company, in Getxo (Bizkaia).
In the absence of analyzing the content of the documentation and electronic devices seized from the suspects – which could be key to strengthening the evidence already collected with the telephone interventions, in the opinion of the investigators – the searches left two other surprises.
In a house of Víctor de Aldama in San Sebastián de los Reyes (Madrid), the agents found a firearm: a 44 millimeter caliber carbine from the Tiger brand, with a manual repeater.
“Which lacks documentation that supports its legal possession,” the researchers explain in a report.
The carbine, the extendable defense and the 'taser' intervened in the records of the 'Koldo case'.
During the search of the home in Murcia of another person involved, businessman Rogelio Pujalte, two “prohibited weapons” were found: an electric defense (
taser
) and an extendable defense.
The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office explained that, during these two days, there were around twenty arrests: among them, those of Koldo García, his brother Joseba and his wife Patricia Uriz;
that of Víctor de Aldama;
and that of Íñigo Rotaeche.
The blocking of 88 accounts, 13 properties and 11 vehicles
Judge Ismael Moreno ordered the blocking of 88 bank accounts of the alleged members of the
Koldo case
network .
In nearly 40 deposits, the businessman Víctor de Aldama, president of Zamora CF and one of the main people involved, is listed as the owner (or authorized).
But the name of Koldo García, former advisor to former socialist minister José Luis Ábalos, also appears in five accounts;
that of his wife, Patricia Uriz, in seven;
and that of his brother Joseba, in eight.
For its part, nine accounts of another of the accused businessmen, Juan Carlos Cueto, have also been intervened;
and ten from Íñigo Rotaeche, representative of the company Soluciones de Gestión y Apoyo a las Empresas SL, epicenter of the plot.
In two other documents, the judge orders the blocking of 13 properties, among which are the three apartments that Koldo García supposedly bought on the coast of Benidorm (Alicante) with the bribes collected.
11 vehicles were also seized from those involved, including a Ferrari and a Harley-Davidson.
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