Guardia Civil finds PSOE 'sewer' network was directed by Santos Cerdán to protect government interests, court filings show

The Ferraz search

Guardia Civil agents entered PSOE headquarters on Calle Ferraz at 8:50 a.m. last Wednesday after notifying a party legal representative of the judicial authorisation. The party's Organisation Secretary, Rebeca Torró, arrived at 9:36 a.m. and the search continued until 11:10 p.m., according to a UCO report included in the case file.

Investigators asked about digital folders on the PSOE internal network linked to Santos Cerdán, the former Organisation Secretary. Party staff told them Cerdán had no such folders because he used a personal laptop provided by the party. The agents were directed to basement level 3, where all devices and documentation from Cerdán's office had been stored after his dismissal.

There the UCO seized one computer, two hard drives, a folder marked with the initials of Oliver Abogados containing documents, loose sheets and two handwritten agendas. One agenda read "Santos Cerdán January 2025 May 2025". A notebook labelled "Santos Cerdán Sº Organización PSOE" was also taken.

The command structure

The UCO concluded that the alleged network was formed in 2024 and that Cerdán commissioned former party militant Leire Díez to lead it. Investigators describe a two-tier structure: Cerdán at the "superior level" and Díez at the "executive level", with other individuals joining as needed. Those named include former Andalusian vice-president Gaspar Zarrías, lawyer Jacobo Teijelo and businessman Javier Pérez Solset.

The UCO report states the group carried out "a set of indiciarily criminal activities" between 2024 and 2025 whose ultimate purpose was "to protect the interests at stake in a series of judicial cases" affecting the party "and, directly or indirectly, certain members of the Government or its president."

Santos Cerdán and Leire Díez constituted themselves as the leaders of the network, the former at a superior level and the latter at an executive level, with other people joining depending on the group's needs.

The Villalba testimony

Former Guardia Civil commander Rubén Villalba, charged in the Koldo case, told the UCO he met Leire Díez twice in March 2025. At the first meeting on 10 March, she presented herself as someone linked to "those at the top of the Government." Her objective, Villalba said, was to obtain compromising information on the Guardia Civil (particularly the UCO and commanders such as Lieutenant Colonel Balas) in order to carry out an internal "purge."

She also requested information on Víctor de Aldama and Koldo García, admitting that "those at the top" were worried about what Aldama might reveal. In exchange, she offered to restore Villalba's reputation, appoint him as an adviser to the Guardia Civil's director general and fund a new legal defence coordinated with Koldo's.

At the second meeting on 26 March, Díez escalated her claims. Villalba stated she explicitly said she had direct access to "the party's One" and "the Government's One." She also claimed the Government blamed the Interior Ministry for failing to control UCO operations, that she would appoint the next Deputy Operations Director (DAO) of the Guardia Civil, and that she would meet the Director General in April to discuss Villalba's situation. Villalba said he did not accept the offers and filed reports of everything discussed with the court.

She presented herself as a person who had links with 'those at the top' or with 'those at the top of the Government'.

The Carmen Pano account

Businesswoman Carmen Pano, who has acknowledged in several courts delivering up to 90,000 euros in cash at the Ferraz party headquarters, told UCO agents last Wednesday that Koldo García's lawyer offered her sums reaching 250,000 euros (to cover several years of rent, her daughter's wedding and a car purchase) "to save the skin of Ábalos and Koldo."

The proposal, aimed at getting her to change her judicial statement to harm fixer Víctor de Aldama, came, according to what the lawyer told her, from "party people, PSOE people." Koldo's lawyer, Leticia de la Hoz, has filed a submission with the UCO denying any offer was made. Pano said she never received any money because she rejected the offer on the advice of her own lawyer, former Audiencia Nacional judge Javier Gómez Bermúdez.

Pano described four meetings at the lawyer's office. In one, when De la Hoz was busy with another client, the meeting was held with another partner, Ángel Fernández. When asked how the payments would be justified, Fernández replied that "she shouldn't worry, they would sort it out, either through some kind of employment contract or an intermediary contract, but ultimately she should be calm because they would fix everything and she should consider it resolved." Fernández also told her she had to state that "the blame lay entirely with Víctor de Aldama" and that regarding the envelopes, she "had no idea what was inside."

The information that they would have offered me 50,000 euros is wrong, since it would have been more, considering what I asked for, an approximate total of 250,000 euros.

The Juan Manuel Serrano seizure

The Guardia Civil also seized the mobile phone of Juan Manuel Serrano, who was Pedro Sánchez's chief of staff in the PSOE before Sánchez became prime minister. The seizure took place in Madrid at the moment Serrano was read his rights as a person under investigation, within the framework of Preliminary Proceedings 150/2025, which were declared secret and investigate alleged corruption-related offences.

Serrano is under investigation for his alleged participation in criminal acts occurring at least between 2024 and 2025, involving a group of people who allegedly carried out illegal activities to protect PSOE interests. According to the investigation, Santos Cerdán called a meeting at the PSOE headquarters in Ferraz attended by Serrano, where the activation of a group of people, including him, was allegedly arranged from April 2024.

Pressure on the DAO

Colonel Rafael Vicente Yuste Arenillas, former head of the UCO, told investigators that the DAO was receiving "a lot of political pressure" over investigations concerning the circle of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Yuste was the commander against whom a reserved information file was opened over leaks of José Luis Ábalos' messages, which the former minister himself later acknowledged authoring.

Yuste stated that the instructor of the reserved file told him he intended to inform the magistrates of the Supreme Court and the Audiencia Nacional about the file, since he wanted to take statements from the instructors of the judicial proceedings. Yuste advised against this communication. The instructor replied that he had already contacted them because the DAO was receiving "a lot of political pressure." On 26 May, the head of the Judicial Police informed Yuste that the DAO had ordered the file closed.

The DAO was receiving a lot of political pressure.