On February 14, when the agents of the Internal Affairs Service of the Civil Guard they entered the three houses owned by the general Francisco Espinosa Navas not only did they find more than 60,000 euros in cash distributed in a closet, they were also surprised by the discovery of a rifle of which “it has not been possible to determine the legal origin of the weapon.” For this reason, the investigators asked the judge of the “Meditor case” to allow them to extend the record by one possible crime of possession of an illegal weapon.
The search of one of the houses, the one in Seville, ended at 14:51. The Police photographed there a “rifle type” firearm in a bag placed next to a shelf. When doubting its origin – the general had retired in 2021 – they requested an extension of the registry with which the Prosecutor’s Office agreed and that the magistrate granted. according to the documentation that appears in the summary.
“In the course of the entry and registration procedure, the casual discovery of a weapon of war occurs, being a submachine gun. March STAR model Z-45 9mm caliber, with serial number […] and serial number of the Civil Guard […], along with two chargers,” says a report from the Armed Institute to which this newspaper has had access. The agents searched three homes owned by the retired civil guard. Espinosa Navas had gold and silver cards of the airline Royal Air Maroc and Iberito, for example, and in the seizure they took away lipads, flash drives, computers and all kinds of files.
In the intervention that was carried out in the house in Madrid, on Príncipe de Vergara street, the investigators had found a large amount of cash: 30,250 euros in 50 bills in a shoe box, 2,400 euros in another drawer and another 28,460 euros in a box.
From the third house, located in an urbanization of Punta Umbría, in Huelva, the Internal Affairs Service left empty-handed. There was nothing relevant to the case that investigates the corruption that, allegedly, was led by the former deputy of the PSOE Juan Bernardo Fuentes Curbelohis nephew and this general by the hand of the one known as “mediator”, Antonio Navarro Tacoronte. In addition, the same day that the general was arrested, the Police did the same with a dozen businessmen who allegedly paid bribes to this network.
Notes at a businessman’s house to “Dad”
At the home of one of them, the businessman José Suárez (alias “José drones”), due to his work in the world of these flying devices, they found notes on payments to Espinosa Navas, in the name of “Papá” as they called him. Specifically, this was one of the reasons why the prosecutor requested pretrial detention for the general and, currently, he is the only one behind bars.
The relationship between José Suárez and the retired civil guard is in focus because when Espinosa Navas held a high position in the FIIAPP (an organization that is nourished by pacification projects subsidized by the European Commission) he received several contracts from the organization. For this reason, the magistrate has sent a letter to the FIIAPP to clarify this point.
The judge requested on February 17 that “the natural persons who carried out the telematic communications and management of the different contracts between the company Asesoramiento y Servicio de Drones SL (owned by “José Drones”) and the FIIAPP be identified. Specifically, these are projects in Mauritania and Niger for a total value of 2,351,278 over four contracts between 2020 and 2021.
The head of Investigating Court number 4 of Tenerife asked Espinosa Navas directly about this when she took her statement:
– Have you never provided information on these contracts to this businessman?
– I did not provide information because I did not have the information
Suárez is one of the businessmen who, according to the proceedings of the “Meditor case”, paid meals to those responsible for the plot. The togada also wanted to know how he had so much cash in his house. “I have earned a lot of money in my professional life”he explained. She spoke of salaries of 14,000 euros per month in her different positions. A part of what was found was savings, another part was taken out “during the pandemic that we thought the world was going to end” and, finally, something else was due to the fact that he sold a Rolex and they gave him 17,000 euros in cash, he said. .
It should be remembered that the judge is waiting to receive information from Belgium to find out if the general is hiding money there that has not been declared to the Spanish treasury.
Su asked that his release from prison be remembered, since he is the only one who is in jail provisionally. Judge Ángeles Lorenzo-Cáceres has denied it, arguing that there is “real risk of destruction of evidence”, as the prosecution says.