The TSJC granted Toni Rodríguez judicial protection due to the lack of support for his investigations by the leadership that replaced Trapero
The mayor of the Mossos d’Esquadra Toni Rodriguez, dismissed as head of the General Commissioner of Criminal Investigation (CGIC) after the relief of the major Josep Lluís Trapero, asked for protection from Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) in order to continue with the investigations that affected the Government of the Generalitat. According to all the sources consulted by EL PERIÓDICO, the events took place as follows.
At the beginning of 2019, the prosecution commissioned the Mossos to investigate a sergeant who acted as bodyguard of Carles puigdemont in Brussels. More specifically, what the public ministry ordered was to find out if the then ‘minister’ of the Interior, Miquel Buch, had prevaricated when creating for this sergeant a personal advisor position that provided him with a salary without the need to work as a police officer and gave him the necessary margin to be able to protect Puigdemont.
They were not simple duties, as they involved putting the magnifying glass on his political boss, the ‘conseller’ Buch, and, in addition, the presumably graceful sergeant with a position to suit him was also a close relative of the then head of the body, the commissioner Miquel Esquius. But Esquius did not put up any kind of resistance. Quite the contrary, he gave instructions that the prosecution’s order be carried out.
Rodríguez, who at that time was in charge of the Criminal Investigation Division (DIC) –Which depends on the CGIC–, took on that task. It was a task to which he devoted numerous efforts and which has allowed to prove, according to police sources, the alleged crime of trespass by which Buch will be tried soon. Esquius, always according to the sources consulted by this newspaper, did not interfere in that investigation. But they were tortuous investigations because the pressures began when the mayor Eduard sallent He approved the position of commissioner and, before opening it, Buch appointed him head of the Mossos in replacement of Esquius, in June 2019.
Borràs and the Diputació de Lleida
Under Rodríguez’s command, the Mossos had started at that time, and in parallel to Buch’s file, other investigations that affected the Government. One dotted the current president of the Parliament, Laura Borràs, and another, to the president of the Lleida County Council, Joan Reñé. From this last case of Lleida, in addition, a separate piece emerged that ended up connecting with the alleged illegal financing of the defunct CDC, with the 3% plot, which carried the Civil Guard.
The magnifying glass also rested on the production company Triacom Audiovisual and some orders made for the Catalan Corporation of Audiovisual Mitjans during the time he directed it Brauli duart. At the time when the Mossos were pulling that thread, Duart was the Secretary General of the Interior, that is, Buch’s number two.
In a relatively narrow time frame, the Anti-Corruption Unit of the Mossos, under the tutelage of Rodríguez, he was investigating his political boss, Buch; around his number two, Duart; and the then ‘councilor’ Borràs. To these volumes we must add some other less important case that points to city councils in post-convergent hands as well.
The pressures
According to the sources consulted by this newspaper, the leadership that took over from Esquius and led by Sallent did ask Rodríguez to know where the investigations were. Especially the one that affected Buch. Regarding the progress of these investigations, information was published in a digital newspaper that accused Rodríguez of having acted with the case of the bodyguard as he would have done. Daniel baena, the Civil Guard instructor who took charge of the ‘procés’.
And that news was shared in a whatsapp group of the commissioners of the Mossos with the intention of discrediting the work of Rodríguez and the deputy inspector in charge of the anti-corruption unit. It was more or less then, aware of the cases that were investigating and affecting the Government and that they did not have the support of the current leadership, when they requested the protection of the TSJC to prevent them from being removed from the investigations.
The justice granted this protection in early 2021 and the judicial protection shielded Rodríguez. Thus it was arrived until the return of the major Josep Lluís Trapero, in autumn 2021. With the largest, the same sources assure that the pressures stopped and that the investigations that bothered the Government ended.
In a short time, the relegated mayor investigated the then ‘councilor’ Buch, his number two and Borràs
The question of the ‘Borràs case’
The investigation of the ‘Borràs case’ began by chance. The Mossos were investigating a man, Isaías Herrero, for drug trafficking and counterfeiting of currency and had his phone tapped. Thus they heard how the investigated boasted of his friendship with Borràs, then president of the Institut de les Lletres Catalanes (ILC). This indication was confirmed by the discovery of emails on Herrero’s computer during the search carried out by the Mossos at his home in Vacarisses, in December 2017. Those are the emails that are currently cornering Borràs and that support the alleged division of the contracts that he would have handpicked to Herrero.
The investigators entered the CTTI shortly after to seek information about the work that Herrero had actually done on behalf of Borràs for the ILC. But they found no trace. Which could mean that someone had been in charge of deleting it. This question also coincided with the publication by the SER string of the registration in the CTTI by the Mossos and, also, of the controversy that Borràs and Buch staged hours later when the first one publicly said that she had asked Buch directly if the Mossos were investigating her and he had answered no, a dialogue that It would mean breaking the summary secrecy that existed on the case. Borràs rectified hours later.
The sum of these factors ended up causing the court to separate the Mossos from the case and decide to hand it over to the Civil Guard. Despite the fact that Borràs has reiterated that the Mossos did not find any crime in his case and that for that reason the justice delivered the case to the Civil Guard, the truth is that it was the Mossos who discovered the alleged crime and the court who temporarily relieved them due to previous events: the question of why no evidence was found in the CTTI, the publication of the record in the media, and Borràs’ statements. Currently, the Supreme court, the body that investigates Borràs for its status as a gauge, has returned to the Mossos some inquiries that they carry out jointly with the armed institute.
Appearance requests
Related news
With all the investigations practically concluded by the Mossos, the judicial protection also ended. And after the departure of Trapero, the new leadership, of which Commissioner Sallent is a part, announced the day after the replacement of the major who separated Rodríguez from the CGIC. The suspicion that he is being sent to direct the Rubí police station, far from the command posts of the body, has been interpreted by the body as a punishment for not having shared the information that was required of him on the investigations that affected the Government .
The opposition has demanded the appearances of the ‘minister’ of Interior, Joan Ignasi Elena, and the vice president, Jordi Puigneró, in Parliament in the next few days at the request of the opposition to explain itself on this matter. After being dismissed, the head of the Anti-Corruption Unit who had worked in these cases side by side with Rodríguez, resigned and currently remains without a destination.
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