The ‘Operation Gamba’ or Villarejo’s órdago on Felipe and Letizia, by Ernesto Ekaizer

Last Tuesday, January 11, 2022, when entering the National Court of San Fernando de Henares, in the oral trial in which he was asked for 110 years in prison for three causes, the former commissioner José Manuel ‘Pepe’ Villarejo declared to the media: “I trust that in the end someone puts a little sanity and, if not, that each one endures the pull; Today I am going to testify about the pantomime that the hubby has done [Juan Muñoz] from my good friend Ana Rosa [Quintana] and I feel sorry for her because I respect her a lot, but having lied miserably to put my son [José Manuel Villarejo Gil] anyway, knowing that it’s all a lie, I feel sorry for them but I’m going to tell you everything, the relationship I’ve had with Ana Rosa, her husband and let each one hold his candle”.

Villarejo had protected during the investigation of the summary of piece number 6 called ‘Pintor’ -7 years in prison are requested for the commissioner, active at the time of the events, for a case of espionage- to the journalist Ana Rosa Quintana, for whom she worked after receiving 20,000 euros, with the objective of freeing her husband, Juan Muñoz, and her brother, Fernando, from a tax debt.

The operation consisted of using videos to blackmail the lawyer of Mateo Martín Navarro, partner of Fernando Muñoz, so that he would take over the debt. The lawyer, former judge Francisco J. Urquía, was recorded in an orgy with prostitutes, in which he snorted cocaine.

During the investigation of this procedural piece, in his statements before Judge Manuel García-Castellón and the prosecutors, Villarejo made reference to Ana Rosa Quintana, but hid her relevant role in the process for which she agreed to work for the Muñoz brothers.

Juan Muñoz, Quintana’s husband, for whom the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor requested 8 years in prison, and his brother Fernando, signed a consent agreement in October 2020 in which they confessed their participation in the operation, for which they obtained a sentence of 11 months in prison and get rid, due to lack of record, of jail. As long as they ratified the pact in the oral trial.

This was what happened last Monday, January 10, when Juan and Fernando complied with the agreement by admitting that they paid Villarejo 20,000 euros to spy on Fernando Muñoz’s partner, lawyer Urquía, about whom the then commissioner gave them two videos compromising for the former judge, expelled from the judicial career in 2012.

After both defendants, Villarejo began his statement, which lasted between last Tuesday and Friday. The declaration of the Muñoz brothers constituted a Key prosecution testimony for Villarejo’s almost certain conviction.

The former commissioner complied with the warning he issued at the door of the National Court. To questions from prosecutor Miguel Serrano, the defendant explained that Ana Rosa Quintana asked him several times for help for “his browns.” She noted that “her husband [Juan Muñoz] was dedicated to fabricating false invoices“. And he pointed out the origin of the assignment: “It was a personal favor that these gentlemen -Juan and Fernando Muñoz- did not ask me, whom I did not know at all. My good friend Ana Rosa asked me… The first meetings and meals I have with Ana Rosa, more than ten meals to convince me to help her”. To questions from one of the accusations about who had commissioned the work, answered: “My friend Ana Rosa was the one who asked me… It was for her.”

Ana Rosa Quintana as inducer of the operation

The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office did not charge Ana Rosa Quintana because it lacked evidence given that Villarejo, although he had mentioned her name during the interrogations, omitted the degree of his participation. The statements of the former commissioner last Tuesday, on the other hand, place her as the inducer of the operation, with information about the extortion that was being planned.

But Villarejo would also fulfill what he anticipated to the media before entering the courtroom when he said he would tell “everything.” When the prosecutor Serrano asked for some details of the meetings between the former commissioner and Juan Muñoz, the former commissioner pointed out that the National Intelligence Center (CNI) had a lot of interest in such relevant and media figures as Ana Rosa Quintana.

Here he launched the time-delayed bomb: “And especially when she was perfectly aware – so she told me – about the ‘Operation Gamba’, which was attack the image of Queen Letizia“. According to Villarejo, she “was worried because they were trying to filter her so that she would bring to light a series of emails from Mrs. Letizia and third parties. The staging of arresting her husband Juan Muñoz and her brother Fernando, instead of quoting them [a declarar] Like the others, it was to silence him. And despite being [Ana Rosa Quintana] a brave person will have weighed more to protect her husband”. As he saw that Villarejo insisted on talking about the Royal House, prosecutor Serrano asked the court to stick to the case being tried. The president of the court, Ángela Murillo, however, said that Villarejo he had the right to defend himself.

Villarejo always advances by successive approaches. What do you mean? In the piece ‘Painter’ there is a report from the Police Internal Affairs Unit on the recording of a meal held on July 6, 2017 in which Villarejo, Ana Rosa Quintana and Eduardo Inda participated, director of ‘okdiario’.

And to the topics described in the meeting – Villarejo’s services provided to the Muñoz brothers, or Ana Rosa Quintana’s problems with her producer, among others – we must add the star issue: the three diners provide details of intimate material from both Queen Letizia and King Felipe VI. Wow, they’re in the loop.

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When the report on that meal was included in the summary, Villarejo noted that only his work for the Muñoz brothers was referred to, and it was recorded that other matters that affected the privacy of third parties were expurgated that had nothing to do with the piece ‘Painter’. The former commissioner requested in writing the incorporation of the complete recording, which was rejected.

Information related to Queen Letizia and Felipe VI They would come, according to reliable sources, from the phone of the one who was a personal friend of both, the businessman Javier López Madrid, who was a client of Villarejo in his lawsuit with Dr. Elisa Pinto (for which the former commissioner will sit on the bench), and to whom he requested a “cleaning & rdquor; of your phone. Villarejo, when doing his job, kept, as is his custom, a copy of all the messages.