The secret papers of Operation Catalonia were not limited to the fortnightly memos sent by the so-called patriotic police to the Spanish interior minister, Jorge Fernández Díaz, and to the Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy. Among the documentation to which ElNacional.cat has had access, there are also reports with the letterhead of the Spanish National Police force's Internal Affairs Unit in which "proposals for investigation" are presented based on what they describe as "information received". Apart from the different proposals related to the family of former Catalan president Jordi Pujol, they also considered opening investigations against the chief prosecutor of Catalonia, Martín Rodríguez Sol, and businesspeople such as the president of Coca-Cola European Partners, Sol Daurella, and her husband, Carles Vilarrubí. The objective of the officers, led by police commissioner José Manuel Villarejo, was to obtain any information that could be used against those responsible for the Catalan independence process. Information was sought everywhere, from informers, court summaries, from confidential Spanish treasury data and even simple rumours found on the internet.
🔒 Secret documents incriminate Rajoy's Spanish government in the anti-independence Operation Catalonia
The documentation that explains the modus operandi of this police operation aimed at discrediting and destroying the independence movement is contained among the secret papers and audios to which ElNacional.cat has had access, and which makes it clear that involvement in Operation Catalonia reached the highest rung of the Spanish government, at that time, occupied by Mariano Rajoy.
Pedro Sanchez
The publication of this documentation, part of which has also appeared in La Vanguardia and elDiario.es, has provoked responses from, among others, the current Spanish prime minister and Socialist (PSOE) leader, Pedro Sánchez. In an interview with public broadcaster RNE, Sánchez stressed the need to "reach the ultimate conclusions" in the commission of inquiry that is to be held in the Congress of Deputies to bring to light all the details of this plot to persecute a political movement. "It is necessary to clarify one of the most regrettable and shameful events in the democratic history of our country", responded the Spanish PM. The leader of the opposition People's Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has avoided referring to it, but other PP leaders have spoken about it, such as Murcia president Fernando López Miras, who, to questions from El Nacional, affirmed that former Spanish PM and PP leader Rajoy "put all the machinery of the state at the service of the defence and unity of Spain and the general interest of all Spaniards".
The release of this information has also provoked a response from exiled Catalan ex-president Carles Puigdemont, who warned on social media that those responsible for the plot will have to respond for their actions; and also from Catalan ex-president Artur Mas, who in an interview with ElNacional warned that it is necessary to take the inquiry all the way, "whoever falls". Among pro-independence politicians who were directly persecuted by Operation Catalonia, the former mayor of Barcelona Xavier Trias and the Catalan ex-minister for economy Jaume Giró have also spoken out to assess the information published.
🔒 Operation Catalonia investigated the Sagrada Família and stumbled on a royal infidelity
As ElNacional.cat reported on Monday, the search by the patriotic police even included the Sagrada Família, where an attempt was made to locate a corruption plot. This, among such a wide range of targets that it even came across compromising information about the son-in-law of Juan Carlos I, Iñaki Urdangarin.
Those targeted for investigation
Among the reports to which ElNacional.cat has had access, most without a lettehead and preceded by the heading Nota informativa (NI) - "Memorandum" - there appears a document that does bear the letterhead of the Spanish interior ministry and the Deputy Operational Directorate of the Spanish National Police force's Internal Affairs Unit. This text indicates "possible lines of investigation derived from the information received and analyzed" by this unit.
At the end of the document, there is a warning that most of the information received "comes from the internet" and has not been able to be checked, but this does not prevent it from pointing a finger specifically at people such as the businessman Felip Massot and the real estate group Vertix, who were the subject of investigative interest for "possible irregularities and undeclared positions in terms of assets". Also on the list for investigation were Carles Vilarrubí and his wife Sol Daurella, as well as businessperson Carles Sumarroca.
As reported yesterday by ElNacional.cat, also among those on this list who the police group examined was the former senior prosecutor of Catalonia, Martín Rodríguez Sol, who was forced to resign from his position due to the controversy caused by his statements in support of a consultation of Catalan views on self-determination. The document on which his name appears proposes looking, firstly, for links between this prosecutor and Unió Democràtica de Catalonia, the Catalan nationalist party for whom he was to stand in the 2015 Catalan elections, and secondly, to investigate what it describes as "the commissions managed by the lawyers of the said party". Rodríguez Sol, when he returned to the prosecutor's office after those elections in which he did not obtain a seat, was removed from any investigation related to politicians.
Again, however, the family of former Catalan president Jordi Pujol filled a central role in these prospective investigations. In this case, an examination of the "possible existence of financial positions in the name of Jordi Pujol in the banking entities Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland in Swiss territory" was sought. The same for the family's financial positions at the Cantrade Lausanne bank in Switzerland; and its possible relationship with the safe deposit boxes of Palau de la Música director Fèlix Millet. In the memo, a lawyer of British nationality, Herbert Arthur Joseph Rainford Towning, even appears, although he is not cited by name, while past leaders of the Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya (CDC) such as Jaume Camps or Macià Alavedra are mentioned, as well as the lawyer Javier Menendez
Spanish Treasury was involved
The documentation inspected shows the extent to which police commissioner José Manuel Villarejo chased every opportunity to investigate the family of president Jordi Pujol and wife Marta Ferrusola, and people in their circles, in almost any way possible. In a conversation recorded on August 22nd, 2014, Villarejo informed the Spanish undersecretary for security and right-hand man of the interior minister, Francisco Martínez, that he was going to try and approach Joan Anton Sànchez Carreté, who was a tax advisor to Pujol, and also to his oldest son, Jordi junior. The commissioner maintained that Sànchez Carreté "was pardoned by [Spanish PM] Zapatero when Artur Mas asked him". Three years after this conversation, Sànchez Carreté was summoned to testify as a witness in the case of the Pujol Ferrusola family at the National Audience and explained that he did not know that the former president's family had money in Andorra. He stated that in 2014, when these accounts were discovered and Pujol confessed, the family asked him for advice and he recommended that they regularize the money through complementary tax declaration, according to judicial sources.
The documents also demonstrate the involvement of the Spanish treasury ministry, headed by Cristóbal Montoro, in the investigation of the Pujols, given that their tax details reached the patriotic police group. A memo dated November 30th, 2012 is particularly revealing in this regard. It is detailed that son Josep Pujol Ferrusola had "regularized his account in Switzerland". This took place in the context of the tax amnesty opened up by minister Montoro at that time. The fact that the police group had knowledge of tax details without legal authorization shows the gravity of the actions of Operation Catalonia.