Specialist officers from Spain’s Civil Guard have raided the Valencia home of former transport minister José Luis Ábalos and detained six individuals across the country as part of an expanding, classified investigation into rigged public works contracts.
The operation, spearheaded by the Central Operative Unit (UCO) on the morning of November 5, marks a significant escalation in the wide-ranging “Koldo case” graft scandal that has repeatedly ensnared Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE).
According to judicial sources, National Court judge Ismael Moreno ordered the raids under a newly opened, sealed investigative branch (pieza secreta), The Objective reported. The operation was carried out in coordination with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.
The probe follows a classified intelligence dossier submitted by the UCO on November 3. Its contents have not been made public, though sources close to the inquiry told the EFE news agency the new branch had been split off from the part of the case examining alleged kickbacks on public works contracts awarded while Ábalos led the transport ministry.
Searches were conducted simultaneously across Madrid, Seville, Córdoba and Valencia. Officers also searched the Seville headquarters of construction group Azvi, which told The Objective it was “completely calm” about the operation.
In Valencia, officers entered the private residence of Ábalos to seize physical and digital documentation, leaving with several boxes.
His partner, Andrea de la Torre, who lives at the property, was also placed under arrest. She exercised her right not to make a statement to officers during the search.
Investigators have focused on De la Torre, who is a former employee of Renfe’s state-owned railway logistics subsidiary Logirail, over seized messages and UCO reports detailing how Ábalos and his former adviser Koldo García allegedly intervened to arrange public appointments, housing perks and mortgage financing on her behalf. Legal sources told Libertad Digital she had been arrested on suspicion of money laundering over a property allegedly acquired for her by the network.
Another prominent detainee named in the operation is Cristian Corvillo, a close associate of Koldo García and businessman Víctor de Aldama who previously served as Sánchez’s driver during the 2017 PSOE primary campaign.
Corvillo and Aldama had already been implicated in an interconnected hydrocarbon VAT fraud ring, which the UCO has valued at €231.7 million. Investigators allege the network funnelled illicit profits into luxury villas, apartments and financial perks for Ábalos and his inner circle.
Investigators also served formal evidentiary requests at the offices of Adif Alta Velocidad, the high-speed division of state rail infrastructure manager Adif.
The infrastructure branch of the case scrutinises whether senior transport officials, ministry advisers and intermediary business figures coordinated to manipulate state construction and railway tenders in exchange for systematic bribes.
Aside from Ábalos, the broader judicial inquiry has placed former Adif president Isabel Pardo de Vera, former director general of roads Javier Herrero and former PSOE organisation secretary Santos Cerdán under judicial scrutiny. Moreno had so far been investigating at least 15 people over the alleged public works kickbacks, according to EFE.
The renewed law-enforcement sweep arrives amid heightened European focus on Spain’s transport administration, following domestic and parliamentary scrutiny into infrastructure contracts, signalling procurement and the oversight of EU recovery funds managed by Adif.
Judicial proceedings remain strictly sealed under order of the National Court as forensic teams examine seized records and electronic devices from the November 5 arrests. All six detainees were released later the same day, Europa Press reported, citing sources close to the case.
In what is being described as a potentially decisive in Spain’s biggest corruption trial, businessman Víctor de Aldama delivered explosive testimony before the Supreme Court. https://t.co/NllozqaOFu
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) April 30, 2026
The raids mark a new chapter in the sprawling graft inquiry, building directly upon the original scandal that previously saw Ábalos convicted by the Supreme Court.
On June 22, the former minister received a sentence of 24 years and three months alongside former adviser Koldo García, who was given 19 years and eight months, in the initial caso mascarillas (face masks case) trial. That trial focused strictly on kickbacks and influence-peddling linked to emergency medical contracts awarded during the pandemic.
Forensic evidence and encrypted communications seized during that initial probe, though, opened a far wider front.
While the first trial dealt with crisis-era procurement, the November 5 arrests and searches reflect an independent, secret branch targeting long-suspected institutional corruption — specifically whether the same network systematically rigged major state rail and road infrastructure contracts awarded by the transport ministry and public bodies like Adif.
Ábalos and Koldo García have been held behind bars since November 2025.
Ábalos was Sánchez’s original right-hand man, serving as PSOE organisation secretary from 2017 to 2021 and as transport minister from 2018 to 2021. He was the key architect behind Sánchez’s political resurrection in the 2017 PSOE primaries and the 2018 vote of no confidence.
When Sánchez dismissed Ábalos in July 2021, Santos Cerdán stepped in as Sánchez’s new political enforcer and chief negotiator. He was most notably sent to Switzerland to negotiate the amnesty deal with Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont’s Junts party.
In a major political blow to the government, Cerdán was subsequently remanded to prison on June 30, 2025, on corruption and bribery charges stemming from the expanding Koldo inquiries. That made both of Sánchez’s successive party fixers targets of the same graft investigation. Cerdán was released on November 19, 2025, though he remains under investigation.
The popular prosecution in the long-running investigation into Begoña Gómez, wife of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, has requested a prison sentence of up to 24 years if she is convicted on the alleged corruption-related offences levelled against her.…
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) April 20, 2026
