The 'masks case' of Almería: the mayor who changed party without changing business

There are towns where the mayor and the businessman are the same person, only with different signatures. Tíjola, a municipality of about three thousand inhabitants in the Almanzora region of Almería, is one of those towns. Its mayor since 2019, José Juan Martínez Pérez, came to office under the acronym of Ciudadanos, switched to the Partido Popular before the 2023 elections, obtained an absolute majority in those elections, and since then signs the resolutions for the awarding of public contracts that benefit, directly or indirectly, the companies he himself controls or that are managed by his wife and a trusted friend as front men. The Central Operative Unit of the Civil Guard has been investigating this circle for some time. On June 25, 2026, Martínez testified before Instruction Court number 1 of Almería as one of the 43 investigated in the Masks Case of the Provincial Council, the biggest institutional corruption scandal the province has known in decades.

From Ciudadanos to PP: the same mayor, different party card

Martínez won the municipal elections of May 2019 as a Ciudadanos candidate and took office as mayor with the support of the PP. He governed for four years with that combination until, before the 2023 elections, he joined the Partido Popular. The jump was presented as an incorporation of talent by the provincial PP, which in a few weeks absorbed several "orange" mayors from the Almanzora region. In May 2023, already under the popular acronym, Martínez swept: eight out of nine possible councilors, an absolute majority that left him free to govern without effective oversight. That same year he assumed the position of provincial deputy in the Provincial Council of Almería, where he held the delegation of the Area of Sustainability, Natural Environment and European Funds Attraction under the presidency of Javier Aureliano García, the PP leader who resigned in November 2025 after being arrested for alleged irregular awards. The two positions —mayor and provincial deputy— turned Martínez into a central node in the capture and distribution of public funds.

The business architecture: AGUAEMA wins, HIDAMA works

Martínez is the real owner and administrator of a group of companies operating under the trade name HIDAMA: Hijos de David Martínez SL, incorporated in 2000, and Hijos de David Martínez Angulo SA, founded in 1985, both dedicated to the manufacture and installation of metal products. He also controls Inversiones y Promociones Tágilis SL, a construction company that in March 2017 he formally transferred to his then partner, Eloísa Fernández Ruiz —whom he married in October 2021—, with the purpose of being able to contract with the city council without incurring a legal prohibition. Martínez remained as proxy for Tágilis until November 2020. The network is completed by Luck Of Ten SL, a real estate rental holding company whose partners are Martínez and his wife, and Constijola SL, a construction company that Martínez de facto manages but in which he does not appear as a partner or administrator. On July 11, 2023, in a simultaneous operation registered in the Commercial Registry, Martínez ceased as administrator of all his companies in a single day and placed the same two people in charge of all of them: his wife Eloísa Fernández and Diego Faggioli Ujaldón, an employee of the company and a family friend.

The Tíjola city council cannot directly award contracts to the mayor's companies. The solution has been systematic: larger contracts are awarded to AGUAEMA SL (NIF B04038204), a local company in the construction sector, which then subcontracts all metal carpentry items to HIDAMA. Documentary proof is on a supply label affixed to the interior of the old market building in Tíjola, now converted into a library and cultural space: the glass was ordered on October 25, 2021 by "104023-HIJOS DE DAVID MARTINEZ" with the reference "SN-Pedido 725-AGUAEMA-PLAZA". The workers who appear in images taken during the works wear the uniform of Hijos de David Martínez.

The pattern is repeated in four major works. The comprehensive renovation of the old market —awarded to AGUAEMA for 473,905 euros, with 80% co-financing from the European Regional Development Fund— included all metal carpentry executed by HIDAMA. The emergency contract to repair the western access to the municipality after the DANA in September 2019 was awarded to AGUAEMA for 378,397 euros through a negotiated procedure without publicity and without open bidding, and included the construction of an iron pedestrian walkway and four hundred meters of railing manufactured and installed by HIDAMA. The sports complex in the Al Moroc area was awarded in 2022 to the UTE formed by AGUAEMA and Transformaciones y Embalses Parra for 3,324,937 euros, with fences, windows, doors, and railings also executed by HIDAMA. And the water tank of La Estación de Tíjola, whose upper metal part was built and installed by HIDAMA within the framework of a contract awarded to AGUAEMA that is not published on the public sector contracting platform. The sum of contracts awarded to AGUAEMA with accredited or presumed subcontracting to the mayor's companies exceeds four million euros. In several files, only a single offer was submitted: that of AGUAEMA itself.

For minor contracts —the day-to-day municipal carpentry: railings, windows, urban furniture, changing room doors— the system also has its protocol. The city council of Tíjola awards contracts to two local companies whose main activity has nothing to do with metal carpentry: Ortigosa Martínez SL, dedicated to construction materials, and Ceral Cerámicas del Almanzora SL, a ceramic seller. Both act as fronts: they receive the contract and submit the invoice to the city council, collecting their commission, while HIDAMA executes the real work. Documented contracts include the municipality's urban furniture, the railing of the Plaza de las Nieves in 2023, the interior carpentry of the Sagrado Corazón school that same year, the doors of the municipal swimming pool changing rooms in 2022, and several actions in 2025. At least one of these works does not even appear in the quarterly list of minor contracts published by the city council.

There is a case that illustrates the impunity with which this system operates. On May 30, 2025, the Tíjola city council published a video on Facebook showing a metal structure already installed in the Plaza Virgen del Socorro; the same video was shared on the mayor's personal account. The contract for that structure was formally awarded on June 5, 2025, five days after the publication. The work was executed before there was a contract to cover it. Alongside this framework operates Antonio Fernández Lorente, a local plumber appointed head of public works for the city council when Martínez became mayor. In 2019, under the name of his nephew Javier Fernández López, the company Instalaciones y Suministros Fernández SL was established, which has since accumulated municipal contracts. The most recent is for the supply of plumbing materials for 100,274 euros awarded in February 2024 for four renewable years. In the evaluation, the mayor assigned this company 25 out of 25 points in the criteria evaluable by judgment of value —the only subjective ones—, compared to 5 points for the only competitor, Saltoki Valencia SL, which also offered a lower price.

The mayor bought the land from his father

The most difficult scandal to justify lies in the foundations of the sports complex. The city council acquired land in the Al Moroc area for 300,000 euros —six euros per square meter— through a tender to which only one bidder applied. The problem is not the price: it is who was paid. The owners of these lands were three: Trans Frio Higueral SL, Inversiones y Promociones Tágilis SL —the company linked to the mayor— and Juan Martínez Jiménez, father of José Juan Martínez Pérez. The official award announcement published on the Public Sector Contracting Platform only mentions Trans Frio Higueral as the awardee, concealing the other two sellers. The lands are cataloged by the Junta de Andalucía as a flood zone, at the confluence of the Almanzora River and the Bacares River. The complex was inaugurated in December 2024. Four months later, an extensive area collapsed, affecting part of the athletics track.

The Mask Case: from masks to works

What began as an alleged fraud in the purchase of sanitary material at the Almería Provincial Council at the beginning of the pandemic —a contract awarded in April 2020 with an overcost of one million euros— led to a much broader investigation. The UCO of the Civil Guard documented alleged irregularities in the awarding of works at the Provincial Council between 2016 and 2021, commissions of between 10% and 50%, shell companies, and money laundering. The former president of the institution, Javier Aureliano García, resigned in November 2025 after being arrested. The UCO found envelopes with cash linked to García during the search of his sister and confirmed that none of his mortgage payments had been made by him. Former vice president Óscar Liria was arrested in June 2021 with 26,750 euros in cash at his home. The also former vice president Fernando Giménez allegedly took 10% of the commissions. The number of investigated individuals and entities rose to 43 in March 2026.

José Juan Martínez Pérez is among them. He was part of García's government team at the Provincial Council as delegate for the Area of Sustainability, Natural Environment, and European Funds Acquisition. The UCO is investigating his business activity in relation to the provincial entity's awards, in which Tágilis, Hijos de David Martínez Angulo, and Constijola are linked. On June 25, 2026, Martínez testified before the judge as an investigated party. He continues in his position as mayor of Tíjola and provincial deputy for the PP.

Tíjola has 3,000 inhabitants and a municipal budget that is not published with the transparency required by law. In the last six years, the municipality's public works have gone through a closed circuit: AGUAEMA as the awarding entity, HIDAMA as the executor, and the mayor as the signatory. His father sold the land for the sports complex, his wife manages the companies, his trusted plumber accumulates supply contracts, and two companies unrelated to the trade present invoices for metal carpentry that others manufacture. On July 11, 2023, Martínez removed his name from all commercial registries in a single day. Four months later, the athletics track collapsed. And in June 2026, the same mayor who signed all those contracts testified before the judge investigating the most serious institutional corruption in Almería's history. He changed parties. He did not change methods.