The Civil Guard analyzes 25 invoices issued by companies from Tejera de León, alias ‘Mon’, sealed with the stamp of the former head of the Ávila Command, Carlos Alonso
The analysis of the calligraphy of the former lieutenant colonel of the Command of the Civil Guard of Ávila, Carlos Alonso, has been essential for determine if he was involved in the so-called Cuarteles case, an alleged corruption plot headed by retired Lieutenant General Pedro Vázquez Jarava and in which there are three other judicially investigated, including Alonso himself.
According to a ruling dated February 20 in which the Provincial Court of Madrid refuses to dismiss Alonso’s charges, there are 25 invoices issued by companies managed by businessman Ángel Ramón Tejera de León, known by the aliases of ‘Mon’ and ‘Alférez Mon’, you were “sealed with the stamp” of the lieutenant colonel, as head of the Ávila Command.
The calligraphic expert evidence from the Criminalistics Laboratory, to which this newspaper has had access, alludes to certain “concordances” and “similarities” of the signatures attributed to Lieutenant Colonel with which they validated the invoices of the Lanzarote builder. The scientific document pointed out that it was “probable” that the author of all of them was the same person, that is, the head of the Ávila command. However, when analyzing only the signatures, the conclusion was that it could neither be attributed nor ruled out that the author was Carlos Alonso.
Chain of custody in the barracks case
Given this ambiguous conclusion, the Alonso’s defense downplayed the handwriting report, at the same time that he defended that the signatures that authorized the payments should be validated by two other Civil Guard officials. Alonso denied, in the same sense, that the heading that appears on most invoices was his.
This officer, now assigned to the Madrid Command, recalled in his appeal that the calligraphic expert evidence from the Criminalistics Laboratory concluded that it could neither be affirmed nor denied that he was the author of the signatures, so it could not be sustained ” without more” that he had validated the invoices of the companies of ‘Mon’, and therefore, was responsible for the payments. Also alleged that the chain of custody of the evidence had been broken and therefore these should not be considered as valid.
However, the Madrid Audience He defended a totally opposite position and recalled that the graphological report does not ensure that Alonso was not the author of the signatures, but rather openly says that “it cannot be attributed or ruled out.” In fact, it indicates that it is likely that the set of signatures share “a common authorship in their stamping, as well as that the comparison and graphonomic comparison of samples doubtful and doubtful indicate a greater number of concordances compared to discrepancies”.
The version of lieutenant colonel Alonso
Alonso’s version, meanwhile, is that his work limited itself to organizing a work group to supervise the maintenance work to improve the condition and image of 27 barracks in the Ávila area. And that these were entrusted to a contractor recommended by the head of the General Support Subdirectorate of the Civil Guard, [Pedro Vázquez Jarava]. He also maintains that the only thing he did was follow instructions, without issuing invoices or participating in the supervision of the works.
Alonso’s lawyer also criticizes the “fairly superficial” inspection of the expert appointed by Internal Affairs to check whether the painting work had been carried out or not. The official detected “deviations between what is billed and paid, and what is executed” in many of the works, all of them carried out by the companies of ‘Mon’. However, Carlos Alonso certified the works now under suspicion.
The investigation of the ‘barracks case’ -carried out since the end of 2021 by the Investigating Court number 3 of Madrid on alleged irregularities in the contracting of works for thirteen Civil Guard commands- is paralyzed pending the General Directorate of State Heritage, dependent on the Ministry of Finance, designate new experts to analyze the works carried out by the builder from Lanzarote.
Suspicious works in barracks
The head of the Court of Instruction number 3 of Madrid, Maria Isabel Durantez, investigates whether senior officers of the Civil Guard favored the businessman from Lanzarote Ángel Ramón Tejera de León, who is charged with receiving awards of suspicious works in barracks for a value greater than the 3.3 million of euros. His name also appears five times in the summary of the Mediator case. According to the investigations carried out by Internal Affairs of the armed institute, Lieutenant General Pedro Vázquez Jarava was the main promoter of these awards.
The magistrate keeps Carlos Alonso under investigation, given that the evidence suggests that he would have forced the civil guards to sign contracts with the companies of ‘Mon’. The evidence provided by the Internal Affairs report included handwritten documents and even signatures that are attributed to the then lieutenant colonel of Ávila.