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The arrest in Madrid of the president and CEO of the Spanish airline Plus Ultra, which has been marked for years by its financial ties to Venezuela and its lucrative contracts with the Cuban government, triggered a new wave of scrutiny this Thursday on a company that has transported high-ranking officials from the island, operated flights for Cubana de Aviación, and has been key in tourist routes to Varadero and Holguín. However, now its top management is under arrest for an alleged crime of money laundering.
Agents from the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) conducted a search at the airline's headquarters in Madrid under the orders of the Court of Instruction number 15, as reported by Euro News.
The investigation, conducted under a seal of secrecy, aims to clarify suspicious accounting and corporate transactions. The arrested individuals are Julio Martínez, the president and owner of the company, and Roberto Roselli, its CEO.
The operation was reactivated following a push from the Madrid Prosecutor's Office, which reviewed documentation related to the controversial bailout of 53 million euros that the company received from the Spanish government in 2021 during the pandemic. This bailout had already caused an uproar because Plus Ultra had minimal presence in the Spanish market, was partially controlled by Venezuelan shareholders, and, according to independent experts, had shown signs of insolvency even before the health crisis.
Now, Anti-Corruption is investigating whether part of that public money ended up in overseas accounts linked to an alleged Venezuelan criminal network, and whether rescue funds were used for payments to PDVSA, the state-owned oil company of Venezuela, an operation that judicial experts deemed irregular, as reported by El País.
The links with Cuba: flights for Díaz-Canel, leases for Cubana, and tourism operations
The news of the arrest resonates particularly in Cuba, where Plus Ultra has had a notable presence in recent years and has been a key player in both the regime's official travel and the island's air connectivity.
The Spanish airline was chartered by Havana for the transportation of leader Miguel Díaz-Canel during his trip to the Middle East in 2023, using an Airbus A330-202, the rental cost for private flights of which can exceed 11,000 dollars per hour. That same plane transported the Cuban delegation to the UN General Assembly in New York, according to the data journalism project Inventario.
In parallel, Cubana de Aviación has repeatedly turned to leased aircraft from Plus Ultra to maintain strategic routes that its aging and limited fleet cannot cover. From flights between Havana, Santiago de Cuba, and Madrid, to recent operations between Germany and Cuba in an effort to sustain a declining tourism industry year after year.
Only in December, the Cuban government presented as an "achievement" the reestablishment of Frankfurt–Holguín–Havana flights, operated with a plane leased from Plus Ultra, while German tourism has plummeted by more than 40% and the island is experiencing one of its worst energy and economic crises in decades.
Plus Ultra has also transported hundreds of Polish tourists to Varadero, in agreements designed to sustain the high season despite the increasing difficulties that visitors and Cubans report throughout the country.
The contrast: an airline under suspicion and a country that pays the price
The investigation in Spain is not directed against Cuba, but it does affect a company closely linked to some of the most controversial expenses of the regime in recent years, including high-cost international flights for its leaders and agreements to maintain routes that the state airline Cubana can no longer operate.
For now, Plus Ultra claims to be cooperating with the authorities and states that its flights continue as normal. The court anticipates further actions in the coming days to determine whether the company's financial transactions actually constitute a money laundering offense.
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