Santos Cerdán protected Ábalos after his dismissal on suspicion of corruption.

In July 2021, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez dismissed José Luis Ábalos without explanation. However, two years later, the former Minister of Transport and a close confidant of the PSOE leader was included on the lists for the general elections, a move that was neither explained nor understood. Following the latest findings of the Civil Guard's Central Operational Unit (UCO) , it has been discovered that the reason Sánchez forced Ábalos' resignation was a report of alleged irregularities. However, it has also been revealed that his inclusion on the electoral lists to secure a seat as a deputy—and with it a hefty salary and the right to immunity—was thanks to his successor as party organizational secretary: Santos Cerdán. "I put him on the lists, and now he's asked me to go to Europe," Cerdán acknowledged regarding Ábalos in a conversation at the end of 2023.

This decontextualized fact could be considered a mere anecdote. However, with the information revealed, it becomes clear why Cerdán wanted to protect Ábalos in some way. During his time as minister, Santos Cerdán allegedly maneuvered through Ábalos's advisor, Koldo García, to rig contracts awarded by the Ministry of Transport or public companies linked to it, such as Adif, in favor of certain companies. According to the latest UCO report submitted to Supreme Court Judge Leopoldo Puente, Cerdán was then the one who collected the agreed-upon percentage in exchange for the contracts, which he then divided between García and Ábalos.

Cerdán was worried in 2021 Due to the "noise" in communities where Transport awarded rigged works

When Sánchez decided to get rid of his right-hand man, he appointed Santos Cerdán to lead the party's organization. From the recordings García made of his two associates in recent years without their knowledge, the inside story has been reconstructed. In January 2021, a few months before Ábalos's dismissal, Cerdán was very concerned about the "noise" beginning to appear in several regions where several projects awarded by the Ministry of Transport had been carried out. Cerdán asked García to take a back seat. "We have to stop the noise!" he warned him in a conversation. "I said you had inherited some money. I said that and I took the noise away. I'm getting noise from Aragon, from the Basque Country, from Andalusia," Cerdán explained to García. In that conversation, the organization secretary bluntly asked him if he was receiving money without his knowledge. "No, I give you my word," García concluded.

A year later, in 2022, the three were still talking to each other to collect outstanding debts from some companies from their time as minister. Cerdán was supposed to raise €550,000 that were outstanding to be divided between Ábalos and his advisor. García made it clear to the "Navarrese" that the former minister needs €150,000 to pay his ex-wife, who had been the "cause" of his resignation. "They owe him €450, but if you give him €300, he'll say yes and walk away, he'll get out of the way," García explained to Cerdán.

Seven months after his unexpected dismissal, García, who continued to do business with Ábalos, explained to Cerdán that Socialist regional presidents call the former minister to offer their support. Cerdán showed that he continued to protect him: "I stop to talk to him, and I do it so that they see me," warned the then party's organizational secretary. Cerdán expressed his disagreement with Sánchez's decision to fire him: "They should have sent him to an embassy."

However, he also felt that, even if the Prime Minister made that decision regarding Ábalos, he didn't want to sideline him. "He asked me if I've spoken with José Luis and how he's doing," Cerdán explained to García. In those conversations, they both agreed that two people, in addition to his ex-wife, were key to Ábalos's downfall: the then deputy general secretary of the PSOE, Adriana Lastra, and the former director of communications for the PSOE.

Ábalos predicted the fall Of his successor after "being in the spotlight" for the negotiation of the Amnesty Law

Despite officially leaving the ministry, the conversations reveal that García still had considerable information. In fact, he warned him to be careful with the former president of Adif, Isabel Pardo de Vera—also under investigation by the National Court—and with former minister José Blanco, now a lobbyist through a consulting firm.

Shortly after that conversation, Cerdán disappeared from García's life, imposing a cordon sanitaire. The former advisor began to get nervous. He was running out of money, and Cerdán had to help him, because, as he famously said in November 2023 with Ábalos, "Santos is continuing with his line of business." The former minister predicted his successor's downfall: "Now he's put in the spotlight"—referring to the negotiations for the Amnesty Law—"which is the worst thing that could happen to him."

Koldo, in the audio recordings: “That son of a bitch Santos has kept the money.”

The report from the Civil Guard's central operational unit (UCO) that took down the PSOE's number three until Thursday lays bare the clues that place him on the brink of indictment. However, the document's annexes, which include transcripts of hours of surreptitiously recorded conversations, reveal the suspicions, deceptions, and betrayals of the alleged corrupt trio of Santos Cerdán, Koldo García, and José Luis Ábalos. In a conversation recorded on November 23, 2023, the former Minister of Transport and his former advisor are reviewing outstanding bribe amounts. Ábalos owes, according to his own account, around €450,000, while García is claiming more than €200,000. With the atmosphere heated, the former driver attacks the former organization secretary: "That son of a bitch Santos has kept the money, he did it right in front of me, okay? I'm getting fed up," he insists to Ábalos, to whom he promises eternal loyalty. "I'll do whatever you want with you, at the end of the world, really, for me you'll always be the man of my life because you've gotten me so many things that no one else has," he continues. At that moment, all García was looking for was for Cerdán to continue interceding, presumably to obtain bribes with which to continue lining his pockets. One of the most heated moments of the conversation begins: "The only thing I ask is that you call Cerdán and tell him: 'If you don't call Koldo, you're going to get you and me in trouble.'" "Let's see if his ears perk up a little," he adds. García, according to the audio recordings he himself recorded, complains that "for two and a half years" no one had found him a job. But not just him; neither his wife nor his brother. "Man, it can't be true," he laments. Two months before his arrest, García tells Ábalos that he's upset because he's heard that Santos is spreading the word among the powerful circles that the Prosecutor's Office is investigating him. The nerves—and distrust—are such that García threatens to take a "recording to Pedro" that would supposedly show that Cerdán was placing trusted people in Transport to continue securing bribes.