The unit Asuntos Internos of the Policía Nacional compared audio recordings of former commissioner José Manuel Villarejo with his personal notes and confirmed their authenticity on key points. The findings were submitted to the investigating judge in charge on 16 September 2026, Antonio Piña They concern passages in which the former secretary-general of the Partido Popular, María Dolores de Cospedalis mentioned by name and which point to knowledge of the so-called Operación Kitchen .
The key item is a recording dated 15 September 2014. According to the case file, Villarejo outlines the idea of making the driver of the then PP treasurer Luis Bárcenas, Sergio Ríos Esguevaa police officer, so that he could no longer talk about internal affairs. In the same conversation, Interior Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz is named as the political point of contact. The conversations are substantively linked to Operación Kitchen, a covert operation during the government of Mariano Rajoy, in which police officers sought to obtain information and documents on Bárcenas’s finances without judicial oversight.
In summer 2026, Piña had already instructed Asuntos Internos to search the files seized from Villarejo specifically for material that might provide new leads on criminal conduct by third parties. The analysis now submitted compares dates and content in the recordings with entries in Villarejo’s diary and confirms overlaps that may be relevant to the assessment of evidence. The judge is continuing several strands of the Tándem proceedings, which comprise numerous separate cases concerning Villarejo’s activities.
The legal significance remains unclear for now. Authenticating individual recordings is neither a substitute for a criminal-law assessment nor proof of specific offences. However, it may help refine investigations, supplement witness testimony and correct earlier assessments. No decision has yet been made on further steps, such as summonses, the classification of possible offences or extending the investigation to those in positions of political responsibility.
The case is politically sensitive for the Partido Popular because the conversations now authenticated involve people linked to the Rajoy government. At the same time, the current assessment alone does not constitute a criminal accusation against María Dolores de Cospedal, Jorge Fernández Díaz or any other individuals named. The court remains responsible for any further measures and will assess Asuntos Internos’ findings alongside the evidence already gathered at the Audiencia Nacional.
Editor: Phillipe Schmidt-Araguin (Article created with AI assistance).