The Central Operating Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard is investigating a meeting between Koldo García and the current president of Adif, Ángel Contreras Marín. A report from the armed institute, recently incorporated into the case file of the National Court that maintains the former advisor to the former socialist minister José Luis Ábalos under investigation, highlights that García had scheduled a meeting for February 21 with the top executive of the public company. The meeting never took place, as Koldo García was detained on February 20 and remained in custody until February 22 when the judge of the National Court Ismael Moreno, who is overseeing the case, released him.
The National Court is investigating the alleged network that was created to obtain contracts for the supply of masks and medical equipment to the Administration in exchange for the payment of illegal commissions in March 2020, during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic. The judge Moreno, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, and the UCO suspect that Koldo García used the contacts he had made during his time as an advisor to José Luis Ábalos, the Minister of Transport at the time, to secure contracts for the company Soluciones de Gestión, allegedly owned by the businessmen Juan Carlos Cueto and Víctor de Aldama, president of Zamora CF, who are also implicated. Adif was one of the public entities that allegedly awarded them a contract worth 12.5 million euros.
The recent report from the Guardia Civil views the scheduled meeting between Koldo García and Ángel Contreras as “remarkable”. According to the UCO, in February, the businessman Daniel Fernández, administrator of the company Obras Públicas y Regadíos, allegedly asked the former advisor to Ábalos to use his influence to secure a contract related to a railway project in Monforte-Lugo that had encountered issues. Ángel Contreras was aware of a financial dispute involving his company and was expected to assist. The Guardia Civil notes that Koldo García had arranged a meeting on February 21 with Antonio Fernández, brother of Daniel Fernández, and manager of Obras Públicas y Regadíos, in addition to his meeting with Ángel Contreras.
Ángel Contreras had accepted the meeting with Koldo García on the specified date. The importance of this meeting lies in the fact that Contreras is currently the president of Adif and was the director general of Conservation and Maintenance at the time of the events related to the case. Adif had awarded the public works contract that was the subject of the discussions between Daniel Fernández and Koldo García. Despite leaving his role as advisor to Ábalos, García continued to have meetings with political figures from the Ministry of Transport, all of which took place at a restaurant in Madrid. Contreras’s name has surfaced in the case, although the Guardia Civil has not found any irregularities related to the meetings with the Adif director in their reports.
