General Espinosa kept 61,110 euros in banknotes at home when he was arrested

The Civil Guard general, who has been in prison for a week due to his alleged involvement in the "Mediator Case", Francisco Espinosa Navas, kept 61,110 euros in banknotes at his home in Madrid when he was arrested, in bundles hidden in a shoebox and among the clothes in a drawer, money that the judge in charge of the case believes to be of "illegal" origin.

In an order issued on February 16, but made public this Wednesday, Judge María de los Angeles Lorenzo-Cáceres describes the indications that make her suspect that this money comes from the commissions that the general allegedly charged to businessmen in exchange for facilitating business with other companies or with the European project of security assistance to the Sahel countries, which he directed in the last years of his career (2017-2021).

She emphasizes, in this sense, that the income that the general received since 2019 in his bank accounts has been reviewed, both from the Civil Guard, as well as from the Spanish public foundation that administered the GAR-SI Sahel project, as well as from Social Security once retired, with the conclusion that "they would not justify the origin of the 61,110 euros", so she presumes its "illegal origin".

The general, retired from active service since January 2021 and retired in July of that same year, was arrested by the Internal Affairs Service of the Civil Guard when the case broke out, on February 14, and that same day his three homes were searched: in Madrid, in Seville and in Punta Umbría (Huelva).

In the order for provisional imprisonment, the instructor explains that in the house in Madrid, 30,250 euros in 50 bills were found inside a shoebox in the closet of the master bedroom, 2,400 euros in 50 bills in envelopes placed in a bag, inside the same closet; and 28,460 euros in 200 and 50 bills wrapped in clothing in the closet of another room.

For the magistrate, from the analysis of the information recovered from the cell phones of the intermediary who gives the plot its name, Marco Antonio Navarro Tacoronte, as well as from the investigations carried out by the Police and the Civil Guard, there are "sufficient indications" that involve General Espinosa in crimes of bribery, influence peddling and participation in an organized criminal group.

In this first piece of the "Mediator Case", which so far consists of 2,165 pages, the instructor appreciates evidence that the general charged commissions in cash, prepaid cards and in kind (travel, meals and hotels, among other expenses) from several businessmen interested in benefiting from his influences, as well as that he asked one of them to hire his lover for 3,000 euros per month.

In the search of his house not only the bundles of bills appeared, but also a card with a bank account noted. Its numbering coincides with the one that Espinosa himself gives to the intermediary Navarro Tacoronte in one of the audios of the summary.

In this regard, the judge recalls that she is waiting for the Belgian authorities to respond to the European investigation order that has been sent to them to request their assistance in obtaining the movements of a bank account in that country related to this officer.

In the order, the magistrate says that the general admitted when testifying before her that he has been paid for "meals and trips to Fuerteventura and Las Palmas" and that he received businessmen in his office at the headquarters of the Civil Guard in Madrid; she also points out that he "partially acknowledged that he had requested prepaid cards".

On the other hand, Espinosa denied in his statement "having received money", but the judge considers that the money seized in his house in Madrid "would respond to those payments in cash and of dubious origin, in view of his patrimonial investigation that appears in the proceedings".

In his defense, the general alleged that he put the people who required his help in contact with two important businessmen from Gran Canaria (not charged in the case) with whom he maintains friendship from the stage in which he was the chief colonel of the corps in the province of Las Palmas thinking about his own future: "In the search for a future job for after his retirement", says the order.

The summary states that, upon retirement, the payroll of between 7,000 and 10,000 euros per month that Espinosa received while working for the European project GAR-SI Sahel became a pension of 2,553.

The judge specifies, in addition, that she is pending the result of the investigations that she has ordered on the contracts that one of the businessmen charged in the case, dedicated to the drone business, obtained from the International Foundation for Ibero-America of Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP), the Spanish public entity that administered the GAR-SI Sahel project for the EU.