The Los Rochos clan: the new vein for the PP to attack the PSOE in the Leire Díez case

MadridIn recent days, a new torpedo has emerged that the PP is using to fire against Pedro Sánchez and the Spanish government. Last week, Beatriz Biedma, the judge from Badajoz who investigated and sent the brother of the PSOE leader to the dock, asked to appear as a private prosecutor at the National Court in the case regarding Leire Díez. The reason? The alleged maneuvers to remove her from the investigation of the David Sánchez case. Since then, news has been appearing in a cascade speaking of an alleged relationship between the Los Rochos drug trafficking clan and those christened politically and media-wise as the sewers of the PSOE. And the PP has clung to it during the control session in Congress to pounce on the Moncloa.

Regardless of the topic of their question, the first six PP deputies who spoke in the hemicycle made direct references to this matter. “We had not seen government parties trying to corrupt mafias,” exclaimed Ester Muñoz. “Who does it benefit? The mobsters that you tried to hire to extort judges,” proclaimed Juan Bravo. And the secretary general of the PP, Miguel Tellado, asked Fernando Grande-Marlaska if he “was aware” of these operations. “You are nothing more than a hitman for another clan, the Los Rochos have had more dignity than the clan you are part of,” he snapped at him.

In his reply, the Minister of the Interior referred to the Kitchen case, the alleged parapolice plot with Mariano Rajoy in the Moncloa –which is awaiting the sentence of the National Court– that allegedly maneuvered to steal information from Luis Bárcenas: “In no way can it be said that the Interior has police officers to destroy evidence nor that it uses them to investigate its political opponents or disturb the rule of law, this difference is substantial,” he said. Previously, the Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Courts, Félix Bolaños, asked that “justice be allowed to work” and limited the suspicions to “behaviors that may eventually have been committed by a specific person”.

"Eliminate her and the Prosecutor's Office will close your cases"

In the document requesting the appearance, to which ARA had access, Beatriz Biedma referred to an entry in Leire Díez's agenda: “Judge of Badajoz. La Celsa. Heroin or gypsy”. La Celsa is Cinthia Rocho, the leader of the Los Rocho clan. It was noted down a few days after the recusal of the judge, which had been promoted by former judge Luis José Sáenz de Tejada, was rejected: “It would constitute a last and desperate strategy to remove the magistrate from the proceedings, and it would deal with very serious acts that could have endangered not only her reputation, but even her own physical integrity”, the document maintained.

Days later, El Español explained that Luis José Sáenz de Tejada had allegedly offered the Los Rochos that an end would be put to the cases against them in exchange for helping to finish off the judge of Badajoz: "Eliminate Biedma and the Prosecutor's Office will close your cases". Consulted by ARA, the former judge denies it categorically: "What they say regarding my person is absolutely false". And he warns that he has begun to take legal action against "all those who are reproducing this lie".

In an interview on Telecinco, Cintia Rocho explained that she had been sent photos and the home address of the judge of Badajoz: "I thought it was someone who wanted to help me, not that they had a personal objective against someone from the court -she verbalized-. It has never even crossed my mind to do it. Are we crazy?", she added.

Months ago, the Civil Guard discovered a WhatsApp group shared by Leire Díez, the businessman Javier Pérez Dolset, Luis José Sáenz de Tejada and the businessman Joaquín Parra. According to one of the reports from the Central Operative Unit, the investigated group "had allegedly made special use" of Luis José Sáenz de Tejada to "articulate various ways" to "destabilize" the case of Pedro Sánchez's brother.

A lawsuit from Vox

The news that has been published recently has led Vox to file a complaint against Leire Díez, Luis José Sáenz de Tejada, and Jacobo Teijelo for the crimes of assault against an authority and attempted coercion, discovery and disclosure of secrets, influence peddling, and membership in a criminal organization. “A mechanism would have been set in motion aimed at conveying to the magistrate the threat of physical harm with the purpose of conditioning her tenure at the head of the investigation,” the document relates.