Audio reveals plot against Spain's top anti-corruption police chief

Audio reveals plot against Spain's top anti-corruption police chief

What was a former senior Socialist official, an entrepreneur charged with fraud, and several lawyers doing in a video call with an industrialist under investigation by the National Court? They were looking for material to neutralize scandals surrounding the government, according to El Confidencial. The audio of that meeting, held in February and revealed by the outlet, captures former PSOE deputy mayor Leire Díez Castro asking for compromising information about Civil Guard Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Balas, head of the Economic Crime Department of the UCO (Central Operational Unit) and lead investigator in probes involving Pedro Sánchez’s vvife and brother, the Attorney General, and the Ábalos/Koldo case.

According to the leaked audio, the conversation includes the phrase “If Balas is dead, better.” The Socialist envoy interrupts businessman Alejandro Hamlyn — arrested in 2019 during Operation Drake for fuel sale fraud with a suspected tax hole of €154 million — to steer the talk: “We’re not going into the networks, because there are 200,000 companies in these networks.” What matters, she says, is “knowing where this genesis comes from.”

Who is Leire Díez and why her agenda matters

Díez is no rank-and-file member. She was placed by the Sánchez government at public company Enusa as Head of Communication between 2018 and 2021, and later at Correos as Director of Philately and Institutional Relations between 2022 and 2024. According to published reports, she has spent over a year collecting sensitive information on individuals, companies, and entities identified as enemies by the executive. The PSOE initially denied she worked for party headquarters; later, she was photographed entering and leaving the central party office.

In the video conference, she was accompanied by businessman Javier Pérez Dolset, charged with subsidy fraud and a collaborator with Ferraz (PSOE HQ), and lawyer Jacobo Teijelo. On the other side of the screen, from Dubai, was Hamlyn. The industrialist wanted to know what he stood to gain. “I can extract a lot of information, but I need to know what happens with my case,” he asked. Díez’s response foreshadowed the script: “If this thing about Balas is proven, everything else trinc.”

The ‘Camorra of the Civil Guard’ and the real objective

The lawyer seated to Díez’s right focused the attack: “What do we know about Balas? Tell us something about Balas.” The former official spoke of a corrupt network that, in her view, nests within the armed institute: “You have been a victim of the Camorra, but of the Civil Guard’s own Camorra.” She concluded: “The State Security Forces and Corps are not here to extort citizens in this country.”

The stated goal was to dismantle the lieutenant colonel. “I have no desire whatsoever for this man Antonio Balas to become our executioner. And currently, what he is doing is turning us all into his prisoners and jailers.” The final phrase leaves no doubt about the priority: “By dismantling that one, it doesn’t just miccionan the people, many other things get dismantled too.”

Figures surrounding the case

The material handled puts several magnitudes on the table. Operation Drake left a suspected tax hole of €154 million. Hamlyn estimates his litigation with the Basque Regional Tax Authority has cost him €60 million. And Díez reportedly received more than €250,000 in public positions appointed by the PSOE, according to published reports. The start of the oral trial against Hamlyn and others involved in the Drake case was scheduled for the same Monday the audio was released.

What peine next: reactions and fallout

Díez acknowledged the authenticity of the audios but denied working for the PSOE: “It was an investigative report,” she said. The PSOE accelerated disciplinary proceedings against the fixer to preempt the audio publication, according to reports. The Prosecutor’s Office allegedly negotiated a deal with Hamlyn until days before the release. And within the Interior Ministry, there is talk of tension over the maneuver against the UCO with a “kick upstairs.”

Hamlyn confessed to having “antiestéticar” after the leak. The Civil Guard director found herself cornered by the case: “Interior knew about it,” according to reports. The fixer’s network also included a commissioner removed for planting false evidence in a police report, and an agent retired and dismissed years ago.

Background noise: resignations, indictments, and a country that doesn’t fall

In parallel, institutional news offers no respite. The Director General of the National Police appointed by the Minister of Interior, Francisco Pardo Piqueras, and Chief Commissioner Luis Guillermo Carrión must testify as suspects for crimes of prevarication, harassment, and coercion against VOX’s current Security Spokesperson, Samuel Vázquez. In barely three months, five consecutive disciplinary files were peine against him, all without any complainant.

The lingering question is simple: will there be arrests? Will the Civil Guard go to Ferraz to put handcuffs on anyone? As of this discussion, the answer remains the same as always: nothing. The case remains open, indictments proceed, and the official narrative holds. As if the system had a life insurance policy no one bought but everyone collects.