Madrid woke on the morning of December 11, 2025, to a flurry of police activity that would reverberate far beyond the capital. Agents from the National Police’s Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) knocked on the doors of several residences, culminating in four arrests, including two men named Julio Martínez. One, Julio Martínez Sola, is the president of Plus Ultra, a Hispano-Venezuelan airline primarily operating to South America, which had received a controversial €53 million government bailout in March 2021 amid financial struggles predating the pandemic. Alongside him, the airline’s CEO Roberto Roselli and a Madrid-based lawyer were detained. The fourth, Julio Martínez Martínez, a previously obscure Alicante businessman, instantly drew public attention because of his longstanding friendship with former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. The unfolding events, initially reported in El Pais, have generated a complex case with international ramifications, raising questions about capital flows, political influence, and corporate governance.
The investigation traces back to 2024 when Spain’s Anti-Corruption Prosecutor received requests for cooperation from France’s Parquet National Financier and Switzerland’s Geneva Prosecutor. Both requests warned of a criminal network allegedly laundering Venezuelan funds of “very high magnitude” through Europe. According to documents obtained by El Pais, the illicit funds came from the chavista food program CLAP (Local Committees of Supply and Production) and gold sales. Authorities suspected that some of these funds were funneled through Plus Ultra, misused in conjunction with government pandemic aid. The inquiry sought to determine whether fictitious loans had been extended to Plus Ultra and then repaid using the bailout, effectively cleaning the money through legitimate channels.
Key figures in the alleged scheme included two Peruvian brothers, Enrique and Luis Felipe Baca Arbulu, Venezuelan broker Danilo Alfonso Díazgranados, and Dutch investor Simon Leendert Verhoeven, who had extended loans to Plus Ultra shortly before the government aid. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor opened a secret investigation in Spain in October 2024 to determine if Spanish citizens were implicated, a process that remained under judicial secrecy until the December arrests.
The detentions shocked the airline sector and reignited scrutiny over Plus Ultra, which had previously faced legal challenges in 2021 from the PP and Vox parties and the pseudo-union Manos Limpias. Critics had questioned whether the airline qualified for state aid due to its ownership structure and modest fleet. Unlike other companies that received pandemic relief, such as Volotea and Air Europa, Plus Ultra became a legal focal point. The December UDEF raids included residences in Madrid, Tenerife, and Mallorca, seizing computers, mobile phones, and €300,000 in cash from Martínez Martínez, who claimed the money came from an inheritance and property sale.
Martínez Martínez’s role immediately attracted attention. A successful entrepreneur before meeting Zapatero, he had cultivated a vast network in Venezuela, initially accompanying the former prime minister on diplomatic trips aimed at mediating political issues and prisoner releases. His experience proved useful for Plus Ultra, where he functioned as a “conseguidor”—a fixer navigating aviation permits, repatriation flights, and dealings with state-owned PDVSA. Sources confirm that Martínez Martínez’s ties to the Venezuelan government facilitated airline operations, though the exact nature of his influence remains under investigation.
The connections between Martínez Martínez and Zapatero became a political flashpoint. The former prime minister, called to testify before the Senate, acknowledged receiving nearly €463,000 from Análisis Relevante, a consulting firm created by Martínez Martínez in 2020, for advisory work spanning five years. He insisted these were legal consultancy fees for global reports and analysis, some prepared in collaboration with Sergio Sánchez, the firm’s co-founder, and others with his daughters’ marketing company handling communication and distribution. Sánchez, however, told El Pais that he was unaware of any payments to Zapatero and questioned how the company could have operated with such reported inactivity while generating income for external parties.
Análisis Relevante, incorporated in February 2020 in an upscale Madrid neighborhood, was structured with Martínez holding 75% of the shares and serving as administrator, while Sánchez held 25%. The firm was initially conceived to leverage the experience and network of Zapatero, although he never became a formal partner. Sources suggest former Telefónica executive Javier de Paz participated in early planning but later stepped away. The company reportedly produced geopolitical analyses, webinars, and reports marketed to major corporations, yet accounts indicate limited operational staff and expenditures.
Central to the investigation is a controversial contract allegedly tying Martínez Martínez to the government bailout. Sources indicate a document may exist awarding him a 1% commission if the 2021 rescue of Plus Ultra succeeded. The airline denies such a contract, but investigators reportedly found a draft on Martínez’s computer. Questions now loom: what capacity did Martínez have to influence the government’s decision under Pedro Sánchez, and how do his earnings relate to potential laundering of Venezuelan funds? Zapatero has denied any involvement, asserting he neither sought nor influenced the bailout and emphasizing the legality of his consultancy work.
As judicial secrecy is expected to lift in March, investigators, politicians, and the public will gain a clearer picture of the links between Plus Ultra, Martínez Martínez, Análisis Relevante, and Venezuelan capital flows. For now, the case remains a puzzle of international finance, political ties, and legal intricacies, revealing how a small consultancy and a former head of government became intertwined in an inquiry with potential ramifications across Spain and South America. El Pais has documented the unfolding events through multiple sources, underlining the opacity, complexity, and extraordinary public interest surrounding what is already being called one of the most sensitive corporate-political investigations in recent Spanish history.
