The five folders of Operation Catalonia that still resist in the courts

MadridJudicially investigating Operation Catalonia has become a utopia. In recent years, victims of the patriotic police have tried their best to bring the leadership of the State's sewers to court, but they have permanently hit a wall. The answer has always been the same: the facts are not a crime and are based on press reports, despite the eloquent audios that attest to them. In recent weeks, however, two windows of opportunity have opened, although the possibilities of an investigation proceeding remain slim. In fact, so far, the only person convicted for Operation Catalonia has been Eugenio Pino, who was deputy operational director (DAO) of the Spanish police, for Jordi Pujol's eldest son's famous USB.

The five open branches

1. Artur Mas

Twenty days ago, the former President of the Generalitat received good news: the National Court amended Judge Antonio Piña and sent to Barcelona the complaint that had been filed against Jorge Fernández Díaz and María Dolores de Cospedal for Operation Catalonia and for espionage with Pegasus. Initially, in July 2025, court number 31 of Barcelona had dismissed it, alleging that it was not competent to investigate it. After the Barcelona Court confirmed it, Mas sent it to Madrid. And, with the same argument, it is now making the return trip to the Catalan capital. The next decision will have to be made by a judge in Barcelona.

2. BPA

The other development that has occurred in recent days took place at the Audiencia de Madrid, which upheld an appeal by the Cierco brothers – former owners of Banca Privada d’Andorra – after the court number 27 of Madrid had closed the door on them. They had filed a complaint for the coercion and threats from the Spanish police they suffered for providing banking information on independentist leaders, which ended with the collapse of BPA. They have now filed a new complaint with the National Court, focused on the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the United States to discover what false documentation was used to bring down the bank, and they are awaiting the judge's verdict on whether it passes the first filter. Some time ago, there was another complaint from Joan Pau Miquel, who was the CEO of BPA, which did not prosper.

3. The four disputes of the Sumarroca family

The Sumarroca family has filed four lawsuits in four years. The judicial odyssey began in September 2022 with a lawsuit against Alicia Sánchez-Camacho at the Supreme Court, which closed the door on it by saying it was making “delusions and conjectures” and referred it to the National Court. But Judge Manuel García-Castellón dismissed them in February 2023, alleging there was no connection with the Villarejo case. Immediately after, the Sumarrocas turned to the Madrid courts: the third lawsuit fell to court number 10, which relinquished jurisdiction in favor of the National Court. “We were coming from there, it was desperate,” recall legal sources to ARA.

The National Court threw the ball back and, ten months after starting the process, the Madrid judge blocked the lawsuit. After the revelations of Marcelino Martín Blas in Congress and the documentation he provided, they filed the fourth: it bounced from one court to another and the same judge refused to investigate again in both July and December. The last –and meager– shred of hope they hold is the appeal they filed, which the Madrid Court has been deliberating on since mid-April.

4. The case of Andorra

A place where investigations are indeed being carried out is in Andorra for the past eight years. But it has also run into the obstacles of the Spanish justice system. It remains at a standstill because the courts in Madrid have refused to authorize the letters rogatory requested by the Andorran judge. It was in June 2022 when the justice system of the Pyrenean country charged Mariano Rajoy, Jorge Fernández Díaz, and Cristóbal Montoro. Two years later, the Madrid Court of Appeal rejected the letters rogatory and urged the judge to send them again. Now the complaint is awaiting the Madrid courts to rule again. It could have been done and not notified, but the promoters of the complaint tell ARA that they have no knowledge of it.

5. A detective from Method 3

The last investigation that has not yet run aground is the lawsuit filed by Francisco Marco, a Método 3 detective. Judge Joaquín Aguirre –the one in charge of the alleged Russian plot of the Procés– began investigating and indicted Villarejo in April 2024. Subsequently, he dismissed it, and the judge who took over when he retired shelved it again. An appeal from November 2025 is currently pending. Previously, the events had been investigated in the National Court, where Villarejo even testified, but the case also ended up sinking.

Five cases that have been closed

1. Sandro Rosell

The complaint by the former Barça president was the first to be admitted for processing. Court number 13 of Madrid, among others, charged Villarejo in February 2023 and the retired commissioner did indeed testify. However, nine months later it closed the investigation, which was definitively buried shortly after. Legal sources consulted by ARA believe that it initially prospered because it did not go against politicians, and this allowed it to pass the first filter. But it ended up being useless.

2. Jaume Giró

The former Minister of Economy also took his case to court. First he filed a complaint with the Barcelona Prosecutor's Office, which forwarded it to the Supreme Court without success. Later, he filed a lawsuit with the National Court, but it was not admitted for processing. In November 2023 it was buried.

3. Narciso Ortega

The head of the National Police in Catalonia experienced the same process. He first went to the Prosecutor's Office and then filed a lawsuit in the courts. But he was not lucky either.

4. Xavier Trias

The former mayor of Barcelona sued the patriotic police for inventing that he had accounts in Switzerland, but the lawsuit never got off the ground and in December 2016 it became a dead letter. A year ago, he announced that he would sue again for the espionage he had suffered, but he finally backed down seeing that it was doomed to failure.

5. Martín Rodríguez Sol

Who was the superior prosecutor of Catalonia also managed to get the spotlight on the alleged maneuvers of the leadership of the National Police against him. In January 2024, the Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation, but it also had a very short life: it was closed in April 2024 and came to nothing.