The substitute judge who issued the order that led to the arrest of the former president of the Almería Provincial Council, Javier Aureliano García, for his alleged participation in a conspiracy to award contracts irregularly and collect or favor commissions, recognizes that the former leader of the People’s Party’s handling of cash is one of the indicators justifying his “full knowledge, satisfaction and participation” in those events. The Central Operations Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard found further evidence indicating the alleged laundering of these stings during searches carried out last week as part of the second phase of the inspection operation. Case masks. Among them, an envelope with 7,620 euros in cash in his name, found at his sister’s house, which was also listed as under investigation, and a document entitled “Income declared and collected in cash”, with a table with numbers and exercises separated by years with references to the apartments and the company whose property belongs to all his brothers.
“This paper may be an attempt to justify Javier Aureliano’s handling of cash, linking it to the declared income from rentals and participation in the property community,” explains the UCO in the report obtained by this newspaper, on this table in which entries are collected amounting to 4,869 euros in 2021, 8,817.46 euros in 2023 and 11,701.88 euros in 2024, with reference to “apartments”, property rental income; and “Farmer”, the benefits of 25% participation in the García Molina CB community.
One of those apartments, which he inherited from his father, García acquired 100% from the rest of his siblings, but he had a rent for which his sister, María Rosario, collected money every month. The judge’s order records the payment in banknotes of the mortgage payments corresponding to the purchase of a property by Garcia amounting to a total of €19,750. Deposits were made from ATMs in Roquetas de Mar and El Ejido to an account belonging to the sister of the former popular leader. Specifically during a search of his apartment, the UCO found an envelope containing €7,620 in cash as well as a piece of paper handwritten in red ink with the words: “This money belongs to Javier Aureliano.” Other banknotes in blue ink were also found in the amounts of 450, 100, 500 and 220 euros, which, as Maria Rosario herself stated to the agents, corresponded to the money she took for her personal expenses.
For investigators, according to their report, this envelope containing cash in the name of the former president of the Almería Provincial Council reinforces the police hypothesis about Javier Aureliano’s handling of cash and “the possibility of its use to justify undeposited income in banks”, a hypothesis also shared by the investigating judge.
It’s not the only set of bills UCO found during searches conducted on Tuesday last week. Rodrigo Sanchez Lopez, the son of the former mayor of Vines and another of the five arrested that day, was found in possession of 7,900 euros at his home in that city, as well as five rifles that could constitute a crime of illegal gun possession for investigators. His father confiscated 1,750 euros from his home in Roquetas de Mar.
In these records, UCO was able to compile new documents strengthening its involvement in the conspiracy of illegal awards by the Provincial Council through its company OYC in collusion with the nephew of the former Councilor, Oscar Leria, who was then the third Vice-President of the Provincial Council and who exploited his position as head of urban planning for that entity to benefit these illegal practices.
The investigators rely on the WhatsApp exchange between Lyria and her uncle, in which they agreed to participate in tenders with other companies and obtain the prize by submitting the most advantageous offer. A practice that the UCO estimates has been occurring since at least 2018. “Marta (Sánchez, a woman who appears to be the de facto president of the OYC) told me that she only owns the machines and Líjar’s garden,” the former Fines mayor writes to Liria. He replies: “Right, show it now.”
In searches of offices linked to Sánchez Lopez, UCO found documents related to bonuses linked to the Acelera 2020 plan – created by the Regional Council for Economic Recovery after the pandemic and one of those that the coach was ordered to investigate in his car – the agents discovered “handwritten notes with the reductions to be made in each case: 2%, 4%, 5%”, a modus operandi that investigators interpret as an example of how to do this. Liria gave instructions to companies controlled by his uncle and cousin.
It is a practice repeated with other commercial companies that the judge ordered UCO to investigate, as in the case of the white construction company. “There are indications that Albaida’s actions may also have been involved in the fraudulent award of contracts for the benefit of other companies, acting in various cases as escort companies making fictitious offers,” the Civil Guard says in the report on a company that shares its headquarters with Hispano Almería, another construction company that has been at the center of a major case in which the Communist Party was also at the center, in addition to illegal recruitment, alleged illegal financing of the party, and its tactics. The work on public works grants was similar.