Overview
- Late June 2026 UDEF reporting and material seized from Ferraz expanded the case by revealing detailed WhatsApp exchanges and travel coordination that investigators say show sustained contacts between José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, his secretary María Gertrudis Alcázar, and the Amaro Chacón brothers.
- A judge has formally imputed Zapatero and on May 18 characterized Gertrudis as a 'pieza operativa esencial' for coordinating meetings and paperwork from the Ferraz office while she has also been formally placed under investigation.
- Police opened a safe at the PSOE office in Ferraz that contained jewelry valued at about €1.3 million, and agents used seized mobile phones and chats as key evidence in mapping contacts and logistics tied to the probe.
- UDEF documents show Venezuelan businessmen Domingo and Guillermo Amaro Chacón paid more than €500,000 to companies linked to Zapatero's daughters through shell entities, and the files describe efforts to use Zapatero's trips—including a September 2024 visit to Sucre, Bolivia—to arrange investor meetings.
- The investigation remains active and procedural: authorities continue to examine payments, meetings and seized records while no convictions have been reported and judicial inquiries proceed under Spanish criminal process.