Spanish Court Requests US Confirmation of Phone Data in Zapatero Case. A judge of the National Court has asked the US to legalize data obtained from the former head of Plus Ultra’s phone. The device was copied in Miami without court authorization. This could affect the course of the case against Zapatero.
In the case concerning possible influence peddling in the allocation of state aid to the airline Plus Ultra, Spain's National Court judge José Luis Calama has sent an official request to the United States to recognize evidence obtained from the mobile phone of the company's former president, Rodolfo Reyes. This phone was copied by U.S. intelligence agencies at Miami Airport back in 2021 without a court order, but Spanish police only gained access to its contents five years later, in March 2026.
The judicial request is connected to the need to legalize the use of this data in the Spanish proceedings, where among those implicated is former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. The case materials include messages from Reyes, which, according to investigators, may indicate his contacts with Zapatero and discussions about state support for Plus Ultra. Spanish investigators have already used these messages to substantiate the charges, but the court requires formal confirmation of their admissibility.
According to the investigation, Rodolfo Reyes, who owned the controlling stake in Plus Ultra during the period under investigation, frequently traveled between Panama, Miami, Madrid, and Venezuela. In 2021, while crossing the border in Miami, his phone was copied by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers without a court warrant — a practice permitted under U.S. law to combat smuggling, national security threats, and financial crimes. In Spain, such actions without a court order are prohibited by the Constitution.
The data transfer to the Spanish side took place only in 2026, when the American Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) independently handed over a copy of the phone's contents to the Spanish police as part of international cooperation. By that time, the investigation into the Plus Ultra case had already been conducted covertly for more than a year, and in December 2025 there were arrests and searches, including at Reyes's home. Case files note that even before the phone was handed over, Spanish police had already mentioned Zapatero in their reports.
Judge Calama is seeking for the evidence obtained in the US without a court warrant to be accepted as admissible in a Spanish court. To this end, he sent a request for legal assistance to the US — only after official confirmation can these materials be used as evidence. The admissibility of such data remains a contentious issue: the Supreme Court and European bodies do not always automatically accept evidence obtained abroad without following local procedures.
Cooperation between HSI and Spanish authorities is considered routine: the parties exchange information, conduct joint interrogations, and provide materials on request. Similar cases of data transfer have already occurred in other matters related to the investigation of financial crimes and money laundering. In a similar situation concerning the citizenship of a former Venezuelan official, Spanish authorities also requested documents from the US Justice Department, as described in the report on Nervis Villalobos.
To understand the situation, it is important to note that Plus Ultra received 53 million euros from the Spanish government as part of anti-crisis support. Questions about the transparency of this deal and the possible involvement of high-ranking officials have come under close scrutiny by law enforcement agencies. In Spain, evidence obtained without a court order is generally not admissible, but international cooperation allows the use of such materials if certain formalities are observed. The decision in the Zapatero case may set a precedent for similar investigations involving foreign intelligence services and data obtained abroad.
