Anti-corruption prosecutors seek 'Torrente' as key witness in PSOE sewers plot
The Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office requests that Judge Pedraz summon retired inspector Rafael Salvador Moreno to testify due to his alleged involvement in the 'Leire command'. A total of 22 witnesses are requested to appear.
Prosecutor requests Judge Pedraz summon 22 witnesses in the 'Leire command' criminal network case
The Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office has submitted a formal request to Judge Santiago Pedraz of the National Court for retired Police Inspector Rafael Salvador Moreno, known by the alias 'Torrente', to appear as a witness in the case concerning the so-called PSOE sewers. This is reported by ABC, which has had access to the document dated 5 June.
The request links him to the so-called 'Leire command', the network which, according to the Guardia Civil, operated under the coordination of Santos Cerdán—former PSOE Organisation Secretary—with the objective of sabotaging judicial investigations affecting the party and the entourage of President Pedro Sánchez.
Twenty-two witnesses, including Narbona and a commander linked to the 'Koldo case'
In addition to Rafael Salvador, the prosecutors in the case request the appearance of 21 other persons. Among those summoned is Córdoba Commander Rubén Villalba, linked to the 'Koldo case'; PSOE President Cristina Narbona; and Seville businessman Joaquín Parra, convicted in the 'Hafesa case', who has already provided information to the Guardia Civil investigating the plot.
Rafael Salvador was removed from the ERE case in 2011 by Seville investigating judge Mercedes Alaya, when he belonged to the Economic and Tax Crime Unit (UDEF). According to reports from the Central Operations Unit (UCO) of the Armed Institute, the network coordinated by Leire Díez—former Correos executive—met with the police officer a decade after his dismissal in order to extract compromising information against Judge Alaya herself, who had reopened the case of the Aználcollar mine on two occasions.
Messages and recordings: "Socially exterminate Alaya"
The computer devices seized by the Guardia Civil from Leire Díez reveal a systematic strategy of harassment against judges, prosecutors and UCO commanders through the use of confidential dossiers. In February 2020, Díez sent a message to Vicente Fernández Guerrero—former SEPI president and investigated in the case—in which she made explicit the group's plans: "With the things I already know about Alaya, the least I need to know is about law. Everything will turn out fine, you will return and we will make sure the tumour is removed". A month later she insisted: "We have to socially exterminate Alaya. Free pain can no longer be free".
The UCO found in a Google Drive account belonging to Díez a folder identified as "22 recordings Rafael Salvador", with audio files in which the investigated party pressures the retired inspector: "What can we expose about her? That is, I need four things that will allow me two impacts, and I will follow up on the rest with a book, okay?".
The network met on at least two occasions with 'Torrente' during 2020 with the objective of accessing the so-called 'Colombo report'—a 2014 Internal Affairs dossier on the sale of official secrets—and obtaining information about what the plot referred to as "irregular actions in Seville", apparently in reference to the ERE case for which former Andalusian regional presidents Manuel Chaves and José Antonio Griñán were convicted.
Zarrías and financing through an intermediary company
Judicial investigation has established that the 'Leire command' had a financing structure linked to former senior officials of the Andalusian Regional Government. Gaspar Zarrías—barred from office for nine years in the ERE case and implicated in this plot—admitted to Judge Arturo Zamarriego that he had hired Leire Díez for €16,000, at a rate of €4,000 per month between June and September 2024. Zarrías claimed he was seeking to demonstrate that his conviction was a set-up by former Police Commissioner Villarejo.
The UCO holds a different interpretation. Analysts from the body note that the company Zaño Sociedad Consultores SL, of which Zarrías is the sole partner, "would have been used by the organisation as an intermediary company to channel part of the remuneration paid to Leire Díez for services provided in the sphere of the criminal activity deployed". The investigations also confirm that Díez reported directly on the results of her actions to Santos Cerdán at the PSOE's central headquarters.
An archive with confidential judicial documentation from 1998
The seized documentation shows the extent of the control that the plot intended to exercise over the courts. Investigated businessman Javier Pérez Dolset acknowledged to the Guardia Civil that he kept a centralised digital archive under the name "Operation PSOE". The folder contained emails, court orders and confidential records from the Internal Affairs Unit on any judicial investigation affecting the Andalusian PSOE since 1998.
Pedraz orders PSOE to deliver record of 'Torrente's visits to Ferraz
Judge Santiago Pedraz believes that the role of Rafael Salvador may have extended beyond the encounters recorded in 2020. For this reason, he has ordered the federal leadership of the PSOE to immediately deliver the complete record of the inspector's visits to the Ferraz headquarters, with details of the reasons for the meetings, times and companions.
Under the instruction "clean, without limits", the network sought to neutralise Alaya, Judge Juan Carlos Peinado—who has indicted Begoña Gómez, wife of President Sánchez—, the Prosecutor's Office itself and the UCO commanders responsible for investigating the corruption of the Executive.
Source: ABC