The Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard, which is carrying out the investigation into the Koldo case, maintains that there are indications that the commander of the armed institute arrested on March 3, Rubén Villalba Carnenero, “was looking out for the interests of those around” Koldo García, former advisor to former socialist minister José Luis Ábalos. He also allegedly did this with the businessman Víctor de Aldama, president of the accused Zamora CF. Both were arrested and released for being part of the plot hatched to obtain million-dollar contracts for the sale of masks to the Administration in the worst of the pandemic, in exchange for the payment of illegal commissions. According to several police reports, to which EL PAÍS had access, investigators believe that the commander forged a “direct, personal and permanent” relationship with the two suspects, and that he even received “recurrent” cash payments.
Villalba Carnenero, 43 years old and stationed at the Spanish embassy in Caracas (Venezuela), was arrested on March 3 at the Barajas airport (Madrid), where he arrived on a flight from Malaga — the agents suspected that he was going to do stopover in the capital before returning to the South American country. Upon arresting him, investigators seized 4,835 US dollars in cash (4,425 euros at the current exchange rate), which he had on him distributed as follows: 43 10-dollar bills; 631, five dollars; 200, two dollars; and 850, one dollar. Later, during the search of his home, the UCO found another 900 euros in cash: 16 50-euro bills and five 20-euro bills.
Judge Ismael Moreno, instructor of the National Court, charges the commander with crimes of bribery and membership in a criminal organization. After being placed at his disposal last Wednesday, the magistrate released him, but withdrew his passport and prohibited him from leaving Spain.
The progress of the investigations of the Koldo case allowed Carnenero to be arrested. The judge decided to open an independent line of investigation focused on this civil guard, with the aim of investigating several bank accounts, due to the suspicion that a member of the armed institute “had received cash payments on a recurring basis.” The agents found indications that a certain “Rubén” or “R”—as several members of the network named him—received “monthly” payments of 2,000 euros from Aldama. And, after analyzing the telephone taps and the material seized from the main people involved in the mask plot, they concluded that Rubén Villalba Carnenero was behind that name and acronym.
In its reports, the UCO highlights several alleged incriminating messages. According to the agents, on November 10, 2021, Aldama writes via WhatsApp to another of the detainees and tells him: “Don't forget to get the 3.6 that I need for Piedad y R.” “Two days later, Rubén would have gone to Aldama's office,” the police document says. Also, on February 18, the agents emphasize that the president of Zamora told another arrested person: “If you can do what I put for the boat, which is 1,500, and the R for next week (…) of R 2 every month.” To which the UCO adds: “Analyzing different WhatsApp conversations, it is confirmed that Aldama and Rubén would have met on February 23, 2022, coinciding with the date on which Aldama had prepared the 2,000 euros in cash for R.”
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“Rubén would have carried out different efforts for the benefit of Aldama. Among them, it would have provided him with a secure line of communication,” state the police reports, which emphasize that Villalba Carnenero also allegedly made “a request in b” for the president of Zamora CF on February 22, 2022, “the date on which “He would have sent cash to Koldo.” The UCO highlights that, according to the cell phone messages intercepted in the plot, Aldama referred to the commander as part of “our people.” According to the seized communications, Ábalos' former advisor also allegedly told the detained civil guard: “You are ours.”
network tentacles
The UCO's misgivings about the tentacles of the corrupt network had multiplied when they learned of a conversation between Koldo García and Juan Carlos Cueto, another of the accused businessmen. According to investigators, Koldo told Cueto that a businessman from Venezuela “has asked him for help with an issue, and that this businessman wants to attack Aldama.” “Koldo tells (Cueto) that he met this third person from Venezuela because he went with a friend of his 'from the greens', who is now going there (in reference to Venezuela) for five years, and to whom he has opened a couple of doors,” detailed a report, which was then added: “In relation to the friend 'from the greens', what Koldo expressed could be a member of the Civil Guard who has left or is going to leave to work for five years in Venezuela.”
“It is striking that Koldo refers to Rubén, indicating that he would have opened a couple of doors for him in Venezuela,” the UCO states in the reports prepared for his arrest. In these police documents, although the commander has not yet been charged with a crime of revealing secrets, the agents also emphasize that “Koldo would have been alerted to the existence of an investigation into his person by sources from the Corps.” Investigators believe that, before the arrests, the main people involved in the plot already suspected that they were being investigated, since they began to adopt “security measures” and intervened in conversations that would point in that direction. Villalba Carnenero refused to testify before the Civil Guard after his arrest.
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