Judge seeks US data on ex-official's phone in storm probe

A judge in Catarroja, Valencia, is pursuing international legal assistance to obtain mobile phone data from the former chief of staff to ex-President Carlos Mazón, José Manuel Cuenca. The investigation centers on communications sent and received by Cuenca's phone on the day of a devastating storm in 2024, which claimed 230 lives.

Judge Nuria Ruiz Tobarra has maintained a rogatory commission to the United States, where WhatsApp is based, requesting data from Cuenca's mobile. This action follows the inability of the Guardia Civil to extract information from the phone after Cuenca formatted it before returning it to the Generalitat in January. The judge's resolution emphasizes the necessity of obtaining corresponding data for participants, dates, and times of message transmissions, as WhatsApp does not retain user trails.

Investigators are examining whether Cuenca sent messages via Telegram and WhatsApp on the day of the storm to Salomé Pradas, the former Minister of Justice and Interior and a key figure in the investigation, as well as Emilio Argüeso, former Director General of Emergencies, and Cayetano García, former regional secretary of the Presidency, among other implicated officials.

Before issuing the international request and after discovering the phone's formatting, the judge had asked Cuenca to appear with his old SIM card to extract communications. However, technicians were unable to retrieve the data, which Cuenca attributed to a change in his mobile carrier. The recovery of Cuenca's phone data is considered crucial for clarifying his responsibilities, as he has consistently presented himself as a subordinate with limited authority. The information could reveal whether Cuenca received instructions regarding the disaster management while Mazón was at a restaurant for nearly four hours during the storm's peak.