Manuel Morocho, inspector of the Unit of Economic and Fiscal Crime (UDEF) of the National Police and principal person in charge of the investigation of the 'Gürtel case', has pointed out this Thursday in the trial for 'Operation Kitchen' that there existed a "strategy" aimed at "dismantling" the team that analyzed the so-called 'Bárcenas Papers', where the proceedings on the PP's B accounting were included. As he has explained, that situation prevented certain reports related to the case from being sent to the judge because there was no "capacity" to prepare them.
These demonstrations have occurred on the second day of his testimony before the National Court (AN), in the proceeding that analyzes the alleged espionage operation organized in 2013 from the Ministry of the Interior of the Government of Mariano Rajoy to obtain documentation from the former treasurer of the PP Luis Bárcenas about high-ranking officials of the party, in full police and judicial investigation of opaque accounting in the formation.
In the previous session, held on Wednesday, Morocho had already described the existence of a "police operation without judicial authorization" around Luis Bárcenas and his circle, and confirmed that he received pressure not to include the name of former President of the Government Mariano Rajoy in one of the reports on the 'Bárcenas Papers'.
This Thursday, the inspector reiterated before the court that "the group" in charge of the investigations was dismantled. "It was a sought-after strategy," he maintained, detailing that several members of the unit received offers for "better" assignments, with higher pay and more "specialized" positions, which prevented him from "retaining anyone."
He specified that in 2013 the research group was made up of 11 agents. That same year, three police officers left the unit, including "an inspector who carried significant weight in the reports". In 2014, a key "sub-inspector" in the proceedings left, and the following year, "five people left," he indicated.
As a consequence of these departures, he assured that some reports linked to the judicial case of the 'Bárcenas Papers' "were not made". "There was no investigative capacity to make them," he summarized.
"Changes, modifications and alterations" in reports
Morocho has explained that within the research group an atmosphere of "self-censorship" was generated when drafting the documents on the case. According to his account, the agents "avoided", "mitigated" and resorted to "peripheral elements to explain issues" because they were aware that "that was going to be an object of problems".
"Changes, modifications, alterations had to be made" and "to remove substantial elements from the body of the report and put them in the annexes because they did not want them to appear," declared the inspector, referring to how the data was presented.
He added that in the documents submitted to the judge "a work methodology was presented that did not correspond to what had been carried out by the group", something he has openly regretted.
"I had to look for a strategy so that the judge would have knowledge without them appearing exposed with the methodology we had been using since the investigation began," the investigator concluded before the court.