Agents of the Spanish Civil Guard showed up at dawn today at the headquarters of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), in Ferraz street in Madrid, as anticipated by El Confidencial and confirmed by other media.
According to sources close to the investigation, cited by Cadena Ser, the operation was ordered by the Audiencia Nacional court to seek information as part of an investigation covered by investigative secrecy, different from the Plus Ultra case, relating to the financial rescue of the airline, which the same court is investigating.
The intervention of the Guardia Civil Unit specializing in economic crimes (Uco) in the socialist headquarters would concern a request for documents and information in the framework of an investigation coordinated by the judge of the Audiencia Nacional, Ismael Moreno, into alleged illicit financing of the PSOE, the party of which Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is the national secretary.
The search takes place while the Spanish leader is in Rome, in an official audience with Pope Leo XIV on the second day of an official trip to Italy.
According to sources close to the investigation cited by the Efe agency, the operations, intended to continue throughout the day, aim to collect documents, files and material relating to cash payments made in the PSOE between 2017 and 2024 for the settlement of expenses of managers and employees.
Payments similar to those received by the former transport minister, José Luis Abalos, and his consultant, Koldo Garcia, currently in preventive detention and being tried as part of an investigation into the so-called ‘Koldo case’, of alleged bribes linked to supplies of medical materials during the Covid 19 pandemic, which could be the subject of a money laundering crime.