The Ertzaintza did not share with the Police and Civil Guard the discovery of data from its agents in the agenda of two Basque radicals and an IRA dissident

The Central Intelligence Office (OCI) of the Ertzaintza reserved the information seized from the members of Jardun Aratz Bilbao and Malen Grünig and the supporter of the Irish party Saoradh Naoise Conron in a traffic stop on September 26 in Escoriaza (Guipúzcoa). The three individuals were traveling in a car when they were identified and photographed, a very unusual practice in a traffic stop. During his detention, the Ertzaintza accessed an electronic diary in which data from the civil guards, national police and ertzainas were found. The Basque Police investigators did not share their discovery and kept their investigations shielded until last Saturday Bilbao and Grünig, accompanied by a lawyer, appeared at the Irún police station where they remain detained for an alleged crime of terrorism.

The Ertzaintza keeps Aratz Bilbao (34 years old) and Malen Grünig (20 years old) locked up in the Irún cells and in the next few hours they must organize their transfer to the National Court for their appearance before the judge. Bilbao, Grünig and Conron were traveling together on the night of September 26 and, in addition to the data on agents stationed in Euskadi, they also had information about the presence of a possible storage location located in a mountainous area in which weapons and explosives would be stored. The Ertzaintza, according to the official information it made public on Saturday, had this information since last September 26 and the Central Intelligence Office based in Erandio (Vizcaya) intended to take extreme protection measures even among its own agents.

But, according to investigation sources, the location of the Jardun couple with a police record together with a member of the dissident IRA party alerted even the French police authorities who had already detected periodic trips by Conron to the Basque Country. The Ertzaintza has not yet clarified why it released the three suspects nor why it did not immediately alert the Civil Guard and National Police about the presence of data from its agents and their powers in matters of terrorism.

The discovery of the data seized in the electronic diary of one of those investigated occurred after a bitter political controversy because last July, the National Police arrested two members of Jardun who had attacked a La Roja follower in Bilbao. The Security Councilor, Bingen Zupiria, and the president of the PNV, Aitor Esteban, denounced the arrests as an invasion of powers and at a rally held in Zarautz Esteban claimed that the civil guards and police stationed in Euskadi should be transferred to Ceuta because the Ertzaintza is the integral police of the Basque Country.

The Government delegate, Marisol Garmendia, not only defended the continuity of the almost 3,000 members of the State Security Forces (FSE) but also rejected the intention to establish a division between "good and bad police" in Euskadi.

But the political controversy fuels the distrust with which the Ertzaintza tries to shield its investigations into the dissident groups of the Abertzale left such as Jardun and the Gazte Koordinadora Sozialista (GKS) and even about the sabotage committed by members of Ernai, the youth of Arnaldo Otegi.

Since 2025, the Central Intelligence Office of the Ertzaintza has had relevant information on the operation of Jardun obtained from the computer of a 20-year-old militant who participated in the serious incidents of October 12 in Vitoria. Thanks to citizen collaboration, the Ertzaintza found a laptop, a notepad and a pendrive in a Fiat 500 in addition to 5,635 euros in cash.