One of the names that appear sprinkled throughout the investigation of the Leire Díez case is Mercedes González, who is Director General of the Civil Guard since September 2024 and who this Tuesday at 4 p.m. is summoned to the Senate. Although – at least until now – she has the full confidence of Pedro Sánchez and Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, the latest report from the Central Operational Unit (UCO) reinforces suspicions about her affinity with the so-called plumber of the PSOE. "Taking advantage of her relationship within the framework of the actions she was carrying out, Leire Díez marked as one of her objectives the carrying out of 'internal investigations' within the Civil Guard directed against the Central Operational Unit'," summarizes the document, to which ARA has had access. Ten days ago, she herself stated that she broke off the relationship with Leire Díez after the second meeting, when she asked her to reinstate Commander Rubén Villalba, who had been removed from the force because he was being investigated in the Koldo case. The document, precisely, includes her testimony: she explained that Leire Díez wanted to carry out a "purge" in the Civil Guard and "eliminate the subversive elements" that were there.

A new report from the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard, to which ARA has had access, supports the alleged leadership role that Santos Cerdán would have exercised in the Leire Díez case. The National Court is investigating an alleged "criminal structure" to "obstruct" judicial proceedings and "protect the interests" of Pedro Sánchez. The 107-page document reinforces the existing evidence and, among other things, includes a report on the "management of travel expenses" related to Santos Cerdán and other members of his team in 2024 and 2025, which was prepared by the PSOE and handed over to the UCO three weeks ago. "He gave verbal instructions to his support staff to authorize any trip requested by Leire Díez in such a way that she personally communicated with the Secretariat staff to request trips," the report by Santiago Llorente, coordinator of the party's management, states.

In recent weeks, political news in Madrid has been marked by judicial investigations. The outbreak of the Leire case and the Zapatero case have shaken the PSOE and have once again placed Pedro Sánchez in a moment of maximum weakness. And there is a repeated name that appears linked to the so-called plumber of the PSOE and the investigation into the former president of the Spanish government: Nervis Gerardo Villalobos, who was Vice Minister of Energy in Venezuela with Hugo Chávez from 2004 to 2006.

The State Attorney General's Office, led since December by Teresa Peramato, has confirmed to the judge in the Leire Díez case that the so-called PSOE "plumber" met twice with the right-hand man of her predecessor, Álvaro García Ortiz, along with lawyer Jacobo Teijelo, who is currently part of Santos Cerdán's defense and is also under investigation by the National Court. The interlocutor was Diego Villafañe, who was the deputy prosecutor of the Attorney General's Technical Secretariat and who "later informed" the State Attorney General of the two meetings. The first meeting took place on March 6, 2025, and prosecutor Beatriz López Pesquera also participated. Prosecutorial sources explain that Jacobo Teijelo informed of "the existence of a series of facts presumably committed by third parties that could have criminal relevance." Subsequently, between late March and early April, a second meeting took place, in which Teijelo communicated his "intention to file several complaints with the Attorney General's Office related to those facts".

New revelations from the summary of the Leire Díaz case, the alleged plumber of the PSOE. In this case, about one of the bloodiest affairs of the dirty war against independence during the sovereignty process. The summary of the Leire Díez case includes the audio of a conversation with the former PSOE militant and former number two of minister Jorge Fernández Díaz, Francisco Martínez, where he admits that the report stating that the then mayor of Barcelona Xavier Trias had a bank account in Switzerland "was all false" and that the former Minister of the Interior, Jorge Fernández Díaz, was the one who leaked it to media outlets close to the PP. Martínez affirms that the person in charge of drafting the report "invented it all," and describes a system of creating and leaking dossiers against political rivals.

These days when the Mossos are watching the sewers, they will find them very full. Of recordings, for example, like that of a former Secretary of State for Security, Francisco Martínez, who admits to the former PSOE fixer, Leire Díez, that the story of Xavier Trias's account in Andorra was false, invented by a policeman and leaked by the “number 1 leaker, you can imagine who it is. Jorge [Fernández Díaz], he was crazy about leaking [...] she did it talking to the pedrojotas”. They, who wanted to be like Bernstein and Woodward bringing down a president, were not, in reality, more than obedient printers of a minister's toxic merchandise. All for the homeland and for the publishing business, of course; nothing for the truth or for the rule of law. What must the very devout former minister have thought when he heard the Pope saying that “no one can kneel before God and despise his brother”?While Leo XIV was preparing these words, Pedro Sánchez (probably “PS” in the plumber's papers) escaped to Primavera Sound. When they can no longer bear the Madrid that wants to kill them, they take refuge in Catalonia and fill us with clichés: “A way to show the world a Barcelona and a Spain that are open, diverse, and full of energy. [...] Its international success speaks of a plural society that understands culture as a space for meeting, coexistence, and freedom”. It’s been years since we’ve been like this. And we would be even more so if we hadn't had to carry the dirty war and the premeditated disinterest of a useless state that can’t even run its trains on time, a drain of energies and resources, which from time to time uses the brush that Tarradellas spoke of.

"Antonio Balas: dangerous". This is one of the various annotations found in the agendas seized from Leire Díez, the main suspect in the latest judicial case affecting the PSOE. It refers to the head of the economic crime department of the Central Operative Unit (UCO), Antonio Balas. He is 52 years old and originally from a town in Badajoz, although this lieutenant colonel forged his career in the Basque Country during the ETA years. "If there is one thing I can say I am a bit of a specialist in, it is the field of criminal investigation," he defined himself in an event in November 2023, three years after taking charge of the UCO's economic crime department with the aim of ending corruption, which he himself defined as "a serious threat [...] to the rule of law and the welfare society".

When the impact of the indictment of former Spanish president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has not yet faded, the Leire case, which investigates an alleged plot to torpedo judicial cases affecting government members or those close to Pedro Sánchez, threatens to become a ticking time bomb against the PSOE. In the last few hours, we have seen how the summary has forced the socialists to qualify or directly rectify previous statements. Now, for example, it can no longer be claimed that Leire Díez was nobody in the PSOE, when we know that she met with Santos Cerdán 22 times; that she entered Ferraz normally; that she spoke with the party president, Cristina Narbona, and that she met up to three times with the director of the Civil Guard, Mercedes González.

The Tax Agency already has on the table a series of requests from the National Court to review the PSOE's accounts, but, on the other hand, it will not have to do so with those of the PSC. Judge Santiago Pedraz has finally excluded the Catalan socialists from the tax requirements, even though the Civil Guard insisted on including the PSC in the investigation. From the PSOE, and from the people implicated in the Leire case, the magistrate is looking for bank accounts, deposits, withdrawals or cash payments and invoices.

The Leire case has become a real ticking time bomb for the PSOE. The trickle of information about the investigation and the appearance of names being dragged through the mud has forced the socialists to step forward to distance themselves from what the judge believes was a "criminal structure" to "destabilize" judicial investigations. The mantra repeated in Ferraz is that the accused made "use of the PSOE's name in vain." Pedro Sánchez has finally spoken out, stating during an official visit to the Balkans that everything was done behind his back: "I was never informed about Leire Díez's adventures. I never endorsed and never had knowledge of something I would never have tolerated," he said from Montenegro. The Spanish president acknowledged that everything that has come to light fills him with "disappointment, concern, and indignation" and announced that the PSOE's legal team is studying "what actions will be taken" in "defense of the party's honorability and integrity."

The summary of the Leire Díez case, which is being investigated in the National Court, includes the recording of two meetings held by the so-called PSOE's plumber with Francisco Martínez, who was the number two to minister Jorge Fernández Díaz as Secretary of State for Security and who is currently sitting on the defendant's bench for the Kitchen case. On July 15, 2024, he himself told Leire Díez how Gonzalo Boye – Carles Puigdemont's lawyer – and Javier Pérez Dolset – who is also under investigation – had offered him to be included in the amnesty law. As can be heard in the recording to which ARA has had access, it was the businessman who contacted him to put on the table a "collaboration" under which, in return, he would have to "give explanations" and "recognize the authenticity" of some documents to the investigation commission on Operation Catalonia. He was surprised by it all: "It seems strange to me, I didn't see any possibility that I could be included in the amnesty in legal and political terms, but I thought I had nothing to lose by sitting down. And I sat down many times with the businessman Javier and the lawyer Gonzalo," he explained.

The director of the Civil Guard, Mercedes González, met with Leire Díez, the main suspect in the latest judicial case affecting the PSOE, even though until now both she and the Spanish government had denied it both in writing – in response to parliamentary questions from the PP – and orally: last week the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, reiterated it, stating that "the director of the Civil Guard has not had any meeting with anyone [...] Not with Leire nor with anyone else". This account changed this Thursday, once the summary of the case being investigated by the National High Court became known. In a statement this Thursday evening, the Civil Guard itself acknowledges at least two meetings —it does not rule out a third— and assures that González cut off the relationship as soon as Díez asked her to reinstate Commander Rubén Villalba, who was removed from the force for being involved in a judicial proceeding.

"A sum of individual behaviors by fake people, opportunists, and resentful individuals who have used the name of the PSOE in vain and falsely, much to the PSOE's regret." The phrase, written on X by the socialists' organization secretary, Rebeca Torró, summarizes the defense strategy the party has activated to distance itself from the plot that was operating from its headquarters on Ferraz street. The PSOE no longer denies that an organized group might have existed that was dedicated to trying to obtain information from investigations, police, judges, and prosecutors to pressure them. "The summary known today reveals a sum of intolerable behaviors by people who falsely and vainly used the name of the PSOE to benefit themselves or defend dark interests," published, also this Wednesday, the party's official account. What the socialist leadership fully rejects is that they were behind it, as, on the other hand, the investigating judge of the National Court, Santiago Pedraz, does suspect. In fact, the intention of the group allegedly led by Santos Cerdán and Leire Díez was precisely to deactivate the judicial proceedings against the PSOE.

The same day that the judge authorized the Civil Guard to appear at the PSOE headquarters in Madrid, from Carrer Pallars in Barcelona, the PSC sent all the documentation related to its 2024 electoral campaign. Although the request was addressed to the PSOE, the Catalan socialists wanted to get ahead by emphasizing that everything was transparent and audited by the Court of Accounts. With this information, the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the armed institute is not satisfied and has filed a claim for additional information with the National Court, which Judge Santiago Pedraz has accepted.

The supposed PSOE plot led by Santos Cerdán and Leire Díez also showed interest in the amnesty law. A 372-page Civil Guard report, which ARA has accessed, contains references to the law and the judicial persecution of independence supporters. Specifically, the Central Operative Unit (UCO) found a Word document prepared in November 2024 by the so-called PSOE plumber" who alluded directly to José Manuel Villarejo. It stated that the retired Spanish police commissioner, who these days is on trial for the Kitchen case, had the "proof that would demonstrate the corruption" of Manuel Marchena, who was the president of the trial of the Procés and was one of the judges who blocked the amnesty for Oriol Junqueras, Jordi Turull, Dolors Bassa, and Raül Romeva –Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín, and Lluís Puig were also not granted amnesty by decision of Pablo Llarena–.

The Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard concludes that Santos Cerdán, Leire Díez, and other individuals formed a group to promote a “set of indicatively criminal actions” with the aim of “protecting the interests at stake in a series of judicial cases” affecting the PSOE and, “directly or indirectly,” Pedro Sánchez or “certain members” of the Spanish government. This is one of the elements contained in one of the reports to which ARA had access and which forms part of the summary of the case being investigated by the judge of the National Court, Santiago Pedraz.

There is no doubt that the PSOE is immersed in a real judicial storm in which new headlines replace the previous ones almost every day and where it is difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. To begin with, both in the case affecting former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and in this offshoot of the so-called Leire case, the accusations are serious and the indications are worrying. But it is difficult to believe that all this is due to the blind action of justice when this is a government that has directly confronted the judges, for example with the approval of the amnesty, and when it is notorious that cases have been opened against the entourage of President Pedro Sánchez with a notable whiff of lawfare, such as the one affecting his wife.

One year and one day after Leire Díez, known as the PSOE's plumber, burst into the news, her name has once again been strongly heard. In the last 366 days, Santos Cerdán has resigned as number 3 of the PSOE, has gone to prison and has been released, and Díez has gone from anonymity to the political forefront. And now the National Court has definitively connected their paths. Judge Santiago Pedraz believes that, along with other people, they concocted a network with the aim of "systematically and continuously destabilizing and hindering" any judicial case that could splash Pedro Sánchez. Santos Cerdán, who was the "leader" and made the "strategic" decisions, commissioned Leire Díez in April 2024 to "coordinate and execute" all actions. The plan involved offering "remunerations or favors" to Civil Guard officers, investigators, or prosecutors "in exchange for information or acts contrary to the exercise of their duties." The focus was particularly on judges who were beginning to investigate Pedro Sánchez's wife and brother.

There is a name linked to the PSOE that has appeared in the first two sessions of the Kitchen case trial, which implicates the leadership of the PP's Ministry of the Interior: Javier Pérez Dolset. He is a businessman and collaborator of Leire Díez, the former socialist militant nicknamed the plumber of the PSOE, and considers himself a victim of the state's dirty dealings. Months ago, he admitted to meeting with Santos Cerdán at Ferraz to hand over documents on irregular practices of Mariano Rajoy's government, and since last October he has been investigated for attempting to bribe two prosecutors. What is his connection to Kitchen? Four years ago, he provided the Spanish police's Internal Affairs Unit with a series of recordings by José Manuel Villarejo. And now, at the request of the retired commissioner, he will have to testify as a witness in the trial.

The Secretary of State for Telecommunications, Antonio Hernando, also a former deputy to Pedro Sánchez's chief of staff, admitted to the judge on Monday that he met with Leire Díez, the so-called plumber Hernando, a former member of the PSOE (now a former member), testified in the case concerning the actions of the so-called "patriotic police" against the Spanish president and his daughters. Hernando, who testified as a witness, also explained that he was informed that these police officers had been monitoring Sánchez's family before he took office, according to legal sources consulted by Europa Press. He did not clarify whether this meeting took place just before the Spanish prime minister took five days to reflect on whether or not to resign in the spring of 2024, during the Catalan election campaign. Hernando testified in the case overseen by Judge Arturo Zamarriego, which involves Díez, businessman Javier Pérez Dolset, and journalist Pere Rusiñol as defendants for allegedly seeking compromising information on Civil Guard officers and judges in exchange for favors. However, Leire Díez's version of events has always been that she was working on a journalistic investigation related to the inquiries of the so-called "patriotic police" into Catalan independence and the left. Aside from this case, Leire Díez is also under investigation in the case of the State Industrial Holdings Company (SEPI). within which context she was arrested along with the former president of this entity, Vicente Fernández, under the auspices of a secret case in the National Court investigating public contracts.