Spain: Ex-Guardia Civil director jailed
01 March 1995
Luis Roldan Ibanez, the director of the Guardia Civil (paramilitary police) between 1986 and 1993, has surrendered to Spanish police after ten months as a fugitive in southeast Asia. Roldan fled Spain at the end of April after appearing before a parliamentary commission, headed by Judge Ana Ferrer, that was investigating serious financial irregularities during his term of office.
Roldan, who is a member of the Socialist Party (PSOE), began his career as a municipal councillor in Zaragosa. Following the PSOE election victory in 1982 he became a government delegate in Navarre. In October 1986 he was appointed director general of the Guardia Civil; Roldan was the first civilian to occupy this position which had been in the preserve of the military since its foundation in 1844. By the end of 1993 Roldan was the favourite candidate to become the Minister of Interior. However, following disclosures about his immense personal wealth, which greatly exceeded his income, in the newspaper Diario 16, Roldan was forced to resign as director general of the Guardia Civil.
Continuing questions about the source of Roldan's income led to the setting-up of a parliamentary commission in March 1994. It discovered that Roldan's personal fortune, much of it located in Swiss bank accounts, was even greater than Diario 16 had suspected. Money had allegedly been siphoned off from building programmes designed to update and modernize the living conditions of the Guardia Civil. Billions of pesetas were said to have gone to Roldan, senior Guardia Civil officials, architects and builders.
When he appeared before the commission Roldan was unable to explain the source of his wealth but threatened to expose extensive and widespread corruption. The commission decided to withdraw his passport, but before they could do so he fled Spain. This led to the resignation of the Interior Minister, A. Ascuncion, who had given his guarantee that Roldan would remain in the country.
The following week, on 28 April 28, Roldan gave an interview to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo in Paris. In it he denounced senior Ministry of Interior officials alleging that they had earned substantial "bonuses" on top of their salaries that came from funds reserved for undercover operations. These claims were immediately dismissed by official sources but further investigations showed that Raphael Vera (a former Secretary of State for Security, currently jailed for his involvement in the GAL case) and Carlos Conde-Duque (former Director General of the police) both received payments in addition to their official salaries. Following the European parliamentary elections in June 1994 Roldan again contacted El Mundo forwarding an extensive report on the financial and personal activities of Mario Conde, chairman of the Spanish Credit Bank (BANESTO) until December 1993. This investigation into Conde had been made at the request of the Vice-President of the government, Narcis Serra, and paid by reserved funds coming from the CESID (secret service), according to Roldán.
Roldan's flight has raised serious questions about the efforts of the police to trace him. There are many people, senior Socialist Party figures and Guardia Civil officials, who would have preferred him not to have been caught. Evidence indicates that from June 1994 the Ministry of the Interior had made several attempts to negotiate with Roldan through members of his family and the journalist who had interviewed him. A key link in these negotiations was Francesco Paesa, who resides in Paris and has connections with CESID (he was prosecuted for involvement with the GAL). Paesa is said to have assisted Roldan in covering-up his wealth and played a significant role in his surrender to the authorities.
On 27 February the Minister of the Interior announced the capture of Roldan in Laos and his immediate extradition to Spain. Roldan was greeted in Madrid the next day by tight security and rushed to a special cell at Brieva