The judge of the case of Elisa Mouliaá against Errejón begins his eyes against Luis Medina, Naty Abascal’s commissioner

In the spring of 2020, when the world stopped and Spain closed the doors for fear of virus, Luis Medina found a road. It was not a noble path, nor one that remembered the values ​​of his lineage. It was a short and crooked path, full of masks and commissions that smelled like easy money. In 24 days, his partner Alberto Luceño and the aristocrat, managed to pocket six million euros. This Tuesday, years later, that path takes him to the bench of the accused.

The Chamber will be silent when Judge Adolfo Carretero takes his seat. Carretero is not a judge who seeks show although it seems that the media show is sometimes found: he is a man who follows the facts and evidence. He has already been seen before in cases such as Íñigo Errejón, but on Tuesday his eyes will be fixed in the documents that delineated the alleged fraud: inflated prices, low quality material and empty promises.

In March 2020, with desperate Spain, Medina had touched the right door. He was a man with connections. I didn’t need much more than a name and a number. He got it. A cousin of Mayor Almeida opened the door to the Madrid City Council, and Medina promised selfless help. The masks would arrive quickly. Relief would be immediate. But there was no altruism in the background, only calculations.

They accuse Medina and look of inflating the prices of everything they sold. A mask that could cost 60 cents ended up using much more: the Madrid paid the yacht, the Ferrari and the other whims.

Nitrilo gloves, those that said they protect health personnel, sold with a profit margin of 81%. The tests, with 71%. Everything was a game of numbers and lies. “Pa takes it out,” Luceño wrote in an email when they closed the deal.

Medina, son of the Duke of Fair and Naty Abascal, had always been a cover man. Photos in Yates, dinner in Marbella, endless parties. After his “ball,” he bought a new yacht, which he called a fair, as his noble title. Luceño, meanwhile, was more practical. He bought cars, watches and a house. They did not waste time to spend what did not belong to them.

Elena Collado, the official who worked directly with them, is among the key witnesses. She was responsible for coordinating purchases of sanitary material for the City Council. According to the documents, at first he believed in the promises. Medina and Luceño presented themselves as saviors in the midst of an unprecedented crisis. But soon the irregularities came to light. Collado found gloves equal than they had sold, but at a much lower price in a supermarket. It was then that he sent a clear message to Luceño: “They have scammed us safe. This is the worst thing that has happened to me.”

The Carretero Judge has made clear in his writings that he does not believe in the excuses of the accused. “At the worst time of pandemic and with thousands of dead in Spain, Medina and Luceño urged a plan to obtain the greatest possible economic benefit at the expense of the municipal treasury“He said. No argument has managed to weaken this accusation so far.

Luceño will try, throughout the trial, paint a different portrait. According to his defense, there was no deception. He was an experienced businessman in international imports and contacts. His lawyers will use WhatsApp audios where he and Medina talked about businesses in other markets, such as soy and sugar. But the judge and the Anti -Corruption Prosecutor have made it clear that the experience does not exempt from guilt. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, Medina acted as the public face, the man who opened doors, while Luceño executed fraud from the shadows.

In spite of everything, Medina continues to proclaim her innocence. During the first days of the scandal, he changed his profile picture at WhatsApp for the image of Daniel Day-Lewis in In the name of the father, where the actor plays an unjustly accused man of terrorism. “There is no one, there is only in the imagination of the Prosecutor’s Office”said Medina in those days. But emails, bank transfers and witness testimonies draw a different picture.

This case is not only a trial against two men, but against a way of operating that flourished in the darkest moments. Pandemia brought the best and the worst of people. While some worked tirelessly to save lives, others were looking for ways to enrich themselves. Medina and Luceño are here because, according to the accusation, they represented the worst.

The trial will predictably last seven days but the aristocrat can fall 9 years in jail. There will be documents, emails and witnesses. There will be lawyers who will try to convince the court that everything was a mistake, a misunderstanding. But there will also be times when silence will weigh more than any argument. Because in the end, this judgment is not just about masks and money, but what it means to betray confidence in a tragedy.