An organized gang of at least four people assaulted María José Álvarez Mezquíriz, the president of the Eulen security and services company, early yesterday morning. The attack occurred when the businesswoman was returning to her house in her car, driven by her personal escort.
At 1.50:091 a.m., the XNUMX room received a call from the bodyguard, alerting them to what had happened. Sources in the case tell ABC that the Mercedes they were traveling in was going down José Bastos street, in the exclusive area of La Florida (Moncloa-Aravaca), when they used the 'sandwich' tactic.
The blocked the way with two vehicles, a Renault Scènic in front and another car behind. Two men armed with pistols, hooded and in dark clothes, got out of the first and pointed at them, to intimidate.
Álvarez's escort was very fast. He fired at least twice, into the air, and managed to make the alleged hit men flee. María José suffered a blow to the side, not important, and an anxiety attack, since when she swerved, the driver and bodyguard crashed her Mercedes into a lamppost. He came out unharmed.
Today declared at the Police Headquarters
The National Police investigated whether they intended to kill or kidnap the businesswoman, who since the death of her father and former president of Eulen has been waging a legal battle with her brothers, who were opposed to her "inheriting" the family empire.
However, the current hypothesis, without being closed to others, which has more force is that they intend to steal the car, a very exclusive and very expensive Mercedes brand sedan. This is the Maybach model, whose price ranges between 186.000 and 260.000 euros, although it can reach, depending on the extras, an even higher price.
Although the truth is that, due to the follow-ups that they had to do on the victim, they would know whose they were caught. María José Álvarez Mezquíriz declared today at the Police Headquarters in Madrid.
possible hitmen
Both Álvarez Mezquíriz and the escort escaped unharmed. In fact, the performance of the second has been essential to abort the plan, whatever it was, of the organization.
What seems clear to the investigators is that it is a gang that must have been hired for the coup, a sort of 'à la carte' hit man that must have been planning it for some time.
The investigators of the Judicial Police Brigade of Madrid are taking not only the victims, but also possible witnesses of the declaration of urbanization and it is not ruled out to do so with other people from the work and personal environment of the businesswoman.
family brawls
Eulen's history dates back to 1962, when David Álvarez Díez established Central de Limpiezas El Sol. Years later, the businessman also founded El Enebro, a company that, among other assets, integrates the Vega Sicilia Group wineries.
The company grew rapidly and expanded into numerous services. Cleaning, maintenance, temporary work, security or assistants are some of them. Its journey has allowed it to employ more than 84.000 people and to be present in countries such as Spain, Portugal, the United States, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Libya, Oman and Qatar.
All this development was cut short by the internal wars of the company. Since 2009, several of David Álvarez's sons have plotted different maneuvers to wrest control of the company from him. For this reason, in 2013 the jointly constituted employer met daughter María José a company to control 60% of Eulen.
The will of discord
Two years later, the founder of the company would pass away and the civil war ended up unleashing. The tension increased after María José was left in charge of the company, as stated in the businessman's will. The relief was endorsed by an executor.
This decision, however, did not have the approval of five of the siblings of the president of the company (Marta, Elvira, Juan Carlos, Emilio and Pablo), who denounced this succession. They even sued the executor on several occasions for "lack of bias" and "conflict of interest." The division reached such a point that the brothers even went so far as to request the resignation of María José Álvarez at the shareholders' meeting.
The conflict ended in a resolution in the summer of 2017. The notarial formalization of the inheritance participation of the founder of Eulen and the partial operations granted by the accountant-party caused María José Álvarez to take over 95,32% of the Daval company Control, through which it will control 59.14 of Eulen's capital.
The five "wayward" brothers strongly criticized the measure. They assured that these facts demonstrated "once again the lack of impartiality of the accountant-distributor executor by not informing at the same time all the parties affected by the distribution, when in addition the aforementioned executor is pending a removal trial in those functions," being the managing partner of one of the law firms that advise Eulen and María José Álvarez.
