On May 27, 2026, agents from the Central Operative Unit of the Civil Guard stormed the national headquarters of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party in Madrid. They were searching for records tied to illegal financing, bribery, and an alleged coordinated effort to sabotage ongoing court cases. Outside, crowds chanted “¡chorizos!” — thieves. The operation targeted documents connected to a widening graft network reaching the highest levels of power. This was no routine search. It was the latest eruption from Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s empire of corruption.
Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, now faces formal charges of embezzlement, influence-peddling, and misuse of public funds. She allegedly used state university resources for personal gain and steered taxpayer-funded contracts toward political allies. His brother, David Sánchez, is also under investigation for influence-peddling tied to a cushy public-sector position. These are not media smears or partisan attacks. They are court-documented facts.
The rot runs deeper than family ties. The Koldo scandal exposed the inner workings of the operation. Former Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos and his aide, Koldo García, now stand trial over massive kickbacks linked to COVID-era mask contracts. Socialist Party organizer Santos Cerdán is also deeply implicated. Businessman Víctor de Aldama, testifying under oath before Spain’s Supreme Court, delivered the bombshell: Sánchez personally thanked him -for his international illegal activities in favor of the Sánchez government- at a 2019 rally, saying, “Thank you very much for everything. I know exactly what you are doing.” Aldama described Sánchez as “the number one” in the alleged criminal hierarchy, with Ábalos as number two and Koldo García as number three. This is not speculation. It is sworn testimony from a man who operated inside the machine.
Then came the biggest shock of all. On May 19, Spain’s National Court formally indicted former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero — Sánchez’s political mentor and ideological predecessor — for allegedly leading a criminal network involving influence-peddling, money laundering, and forgery. The case centers on the €53 million taxpayer bailout of the Venezuela-linked airline Plus Ultra. Zapatero allegedly helped steer the funds and pocketed roughly $2 million through offshore shell companies mainly in Russia, the United Arab Emirates, and Panama.
Reportedly, U.S. Homeland Security investigators traced the money back to Nicolás Maduro’s Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., and Venezuela’s notoriously corrupt food distribution apparatus. Defector Hugo Carvajal, the former head of Venezuela’s military intelligence, has testified that Maduro rewarded Zapatero with a gold mine in the Orinoco Mining Arc — a vast region spanning more than 43,000 square miles and containing an estimated 7,000 tons of gold, along with more than $100 billion in other mineral reserves.
More than seven million Venezuelans have fled the resulting hellscape. Meanwhile, Zapatero — like Sánchez today — allegedly enriched himself while portraying the investigations as nothing more than a “witch hunt.” As prime minister, Zapatero approved the sale of dual-use technology to Iran and authorized a $1.5 billion arms deal with Venezuela. Sánchez, for his part, continues to offer him “full support.” The apple did not fall far from the tree.
The hypocrisy is staggering. Sánchez brands Israel a “genocidal state,” canceled a €700 million Israeli rocket-defense deal, and continues pushing for a full European arms embargo against Jerusalem. Yet under his government, Spain is still quietly exporting dual-use and nuclear-related technology to Iran — components that can be used in detonators, explosives, and missile production for Tehran and its terrorist proxies. Following my Middle East Forum article on the matter, an Israeli legal advocacy group filed a formal complaint with the International Criminal Court accusing Sánchez of aiding war crimes through those transfers.
While Sánchez’s Spain sinks deeper into scandal, Israel eliminates Hamas leaders and rebuilds. The International Monetary Fund forecasts 3.5% economic growth for Israel in 2026. The shekel has strengthened nearly 7% this year despite roughly $57 billion in war costs. Spain’s taxpayers, meanwhile, are forced to bankroll Venezuelan cronies, watch politically connected family members enrich themselves, and witness the ruling party’s headquarters raided in broad daylight — all while their prime minister fled the country today to supposedly “meet the Pope and find solutions to world hunger.”
Pedro Sánchez is not fighting for any of the causes he champions in public, nor is he confronting corruption. He is the swamp’s chief alligator. His anti-Israel, anti-Western, anti-Trump, anti-American, and anti-NATO campaign exists to obscure one central reality: he sits at the center of a vast political machine drowning in allegations of corruption, cronyism, and abuse of power.
The numbers do not lie: €53 million bailouts, $2 million kickbacks, nearly $6 million in sensitive technology exports to Iran, multiple family investigations, and a party headquarters searched for the second time in 18 months. Spain’s voters — and the broader West — deserve leaders who drain swamps, not those who protect them while the water rises. Pedro Sánchez is the head of the snake.
Jose Lev Alvarez is an American-Israeli scholar specializing in Middle Eastern security policy.
A multilingual veteran of both the IDF Special Forces and the U.S. Army, he holds a B.S. in Neuroscience with a Minor in Israel Studies from American University, three master’s degrees (international geostrategy, applied economics, and intelligence studies), and a medical degree. He is currently completing a Ph.D. in Intelligence and Global Security in the Washington, D.C. area.
In addition to blogging for the Times of Israel, he contributes to the Washington Examiner, is a writing fellow at the Middle East Forum, and regularly provides geopolitical analysis on Latin American television networks.