The Casuals, the most violent faction of the Boixos Nois, have reconverted. They have expanded their catalog of criminal services from beatings, threats and extortion to marijuana trafficking. This is stated in a report made by the Mossos d'Esquadra to which La Vanguardia has had access and which has been delivered to the examining court 12 in Barcelona, which last week arrested 28 alleged members of the group. Twelve of them were jailed. The police stress that the Casuals "have evolved significantly, diversifying into the lucrative business of marijuana cultivation and trafficking" after the release of the organization's leader, Ricardo Mateo, who was to be arrested on Friday but was not there. at home. “The leaders are still the ones they were more than ten years ago and their substratum, recruiting or quarry, - the so-called Cubs, - continues to be the same, the radical animation group of FC Barcelona, Boixos Nois.
The Mossos began to investigate the Casuals after the Bar los Cazadores was assaulted in November 2021, where the radical followers of Espanyol gather on match days. They broke into the premises, destroyed everything and left. Following that investigation, the police identified and arrested one of the group's leaders, Paco el Gordo, whose phone was tapped and managed to intercept valuable conversations about the organization's alleged criminal activity. The first indication was a kidnapping. The organization detained a man who worked for them in retaliation against a watchman who "had mismanaged" a plantation. They put him in a car in Terrassa, drove him to Vacarisses and from there to a safe house for the organization in Montcada i Reixach, which also serves as a meeting and storage point for merchandise. The man was held for several hours. “If you don't help us, we will kill you. I'm going to give you a chance, we are the Casuals, no one here plays with the Boixos Nois”, said Paco El Gordo. "Here people are afraid of us," he said. The threats were increasing. "I'm going to give you a chance, if you don't tell me the truth, we're going to where all the greats of football are going to be and we're going to bust you." “You know how it goes. You want to be a gangster. Do you know what a gangster is? I am going to cut off one of the two hands or both hands so that they can make an ear”. He was finally released in exchange for paying 480,000 euros and working for the organization for free in the crops.
The investigation into that kidnapping allowed the Mossos to locate the headquarters of the Casuals and untangle the complicated web of businesses and crimes they committed. They detected plantations in Seva, Olesa de Bonesvalls and Cunit, all controlled by the supreme leader, Ricardo Mateo. The Casuals manage the crops and hire staff and then distribute the profits from the sale, according to the Mossos report. In one of the wiretaps, Paco el Gordo was preparing a robbery of a drug consignment in a Barcelona premises destined for prostitution. The hit went wrong. One of the members of the organization was intercepted by the police transporting a corpse in the trunk of a van while driving along the Vía Augusta in Barcelona. "The violent robbery prepared by Paco el Gordo on March 8 in the brothel did not go as planned and resulted in the death of a person at the hands of the person who had been sent by Paco el Gordo," the Mossos indicate.
The other homicide with which the Casuals would be related is the one that took place in February in Badia del Vallès. A man was shot at point-blank range through his car window by a motorist. In the tapped conversations, the members of the organization allude to the death of El Sardina's brother, a man with an extensive criminal record with whom the Casuals have numerous confrontations and altercations. In August 2022, Paco el Gordo led, together with a large number of people, the violent assault on one of the premises managed by El Sardina and in which Paco el Gordo stabbed one of the access controllers to the premises and shot It hit a neighbor's window.
The Casuals, despite converting to the marijuana business, have never given up fighting in soccer games. The Mossos point to a match against Osasuna in which the Boixos Nois wanted to blow up a tavern in Pamplona where the Indar Gorri radicals are concentrated. In addition, the ultras of Barça wanted to go to Girona to attack the radical supporters of Sevilla, the Biris Norte, taking advantage of the celebration of the match between Girona and Sevilla. Paco el Gordo called one of the Betis radicals to join him. The Mossos intercepted them on the way to Girona and confiscated prohibited weapons. In total, the Mossos to head off the Casuals have compiled up to 16 volumes of an investigation, which remains secret.
The judge charges the 28 detainees with crimes of homicide, kidnapping, marijuana cultivation, threats, injuries, extortion, public disorder in the field of sport and criminal organization.
