There was a general fascination with mobile phones, but this stemmed from their role as a link between the interests of the former president of Diputación, José Joaquín Ripoll, and business figures Enrique Ortiz and Ángel Fenoll. The intense activity surrounding the businessman and the accusations against Rafael Gregory dominated several sessions of the trial for these events, and the matter has continued to unfold.
According to Gregory’s associates, information that he managed to obtain was filtered through language agreed upon with each interlocutor, as heard in the courtroom yesterday.
In the same way as when they used the metaphor “lemons,” a term researchers identified up to fifty times in the police report, hints and gifts of value were discussed in relation to Ripoll, with the aim of mediating the prosecution of the macro landfill project. The phrase “The lemons will be picked when they pay. If they don’t pay anything” appears clearly in a conversation with Fenoll.
Ortiz: “Organize the consortium, and let’s settle the payment.”
February 1, 2009. Gregory discusses with Ortiz the strategy Ripoll had laid out.
Gregory: “Damn, he said you called him when you spoke with him.”
Ortiz: “No… the person who contacted the consortium, we paid him a week ago; do you hear me? … now he calls the consortium and says there is a consortium on the 24th, we sign the money ten days before, I give it to you and you give it to him.”
G: “Come on, let’s not get lost in the details.”
O: “I can’t tell my men, my associates, that we paid him… and he must assemble the consortium before it meets, and we signed it ten days ago.”
O: “Do you know what happened, but do you know what happened to Enrique?”
E: “How does the project change, what do you want the project to change?”
G: “Let’s see, once I found out… the site was approved by the consortium, the site was approved, and now it is approved; you want it changed…”
O: “How did they blackmail and defraud us?”
G: “What did you blackmail?”
T: “Never.”
That was not the only agricultural reference used. The term “sprinkler irrigation” served as a code to describe a workaround. Anti-corruption authorities claim Ripoll pressured Ortiz so Fenoll would not be left empty-handed after losing the contract. When Fenoll mentioned Ripoll, Gregory said he would dine with him that night, to which Autisa’s former manager replied: “The Camino de Santiago is over.”
A notable description appears in the accounts to illustrate the way the businessman was portrayed. Enrique Ortiz offered his boats for use in the cause. He had obligations on one vessel, and the organizer instructed Gregory to use another, a Pershing model 62 with a captain, which Ripoll’s wife referred to as the “small boat.”
“Enrique, the Pershing is leaving us so we can go as far as possible, but he cannot come,” Gregory told Margarita de la Vega, who, with a mixed gesture, answered: “it is better to go without him,” but later noted that she and Ortiz desired his presence. According to the accounts, the wife of the Diputación’s then-president was described as being “comfortable.”
Gregory to Fenoll: “Lemons will be collected when they pay.”
December 22, 2008 marked a pivotal date in the District Plan process: the consortium approved moving the farm where the landfill would be built, pressuring Ortiz to buy the land from Ángel Fenoll. Minutes before the consortium meeting, Ripoll and his ally Rafael Gregory met at a gas station. Gregory informed Ripoll of Fenoll’s interests, namely the relocation approval rather than any workaround used to pressure Ortiz, according to the indictment. Before this meeting, Gregory and Fenoll had agreed on the message to deliver to Ripoll, using the coded language. They spoke of “sprinkler irrigation” to refer to a workaround, as noted in the police report.
Gregory: “Sounds good, right? Let them fix the replacement for the lemons.”
Fenoll: “but just that point.”
G: “Definitely, more points for later.”
F: “Exactly, more points if we don’t give you all the perks.”
G: “And so, irrigation, sprinkler irrigation, right? (…)