Altercations with clashes with local police and damage to businesses marred the Molins de Rei festival at the beginning of October. The investigation into these riots has been closed with a total of seventeen detainees, as explained in the last Local Security Board, meeting almost three months after the incidents with the aim of making a "complete closure" of the investigation.
Among those detained are a minor and four repeat offenders, accused of violent robberies, disorder and damage, as detailed by the Mossos. The police forces assure that they will do "an organizational task for the upcoming holidays to prevent events like these from occurring again." During the meeting, commissioner none of the Mossos d'Esquadra in the South Metropolitan Region, Miquel Esquius explained that “there was no precedent to think that these events would occur” and that “it was totally unforeseeable.”
Esquius has assured that an "exhaustive investigation" has been carried out and that they do not find "any common element among the detainees", therefore, they think that it is "a sporadic incident." In this sense, the police commanders shared all the information about the weekend in Molins, in a meeting held two days later, and ruled out that it was an organized group that expressly went to the main festival with the idea of starring no matter what. the riots. But they did admit to La Vanguardia that those already identified were “known” by investigators in that region and in Barcelona, and that they are habitual criminals looking for that opportunity. Although they did assure that in Molins and Sant Feliu there have been altercations since 2021 with young people from outside the municipality.
The episode that occurred on the night of October 1 in Molins de Rei put the security forces and nearby towns on alert. As was the case of Sant Feliu de Llobregat, a neighboring town, where incidents were also reported, despite the increase in police resources, not as serious as those that occurred two weeks before. After the riots in Molins de Rei, the Minister of the Interior of the Generalitat, Joan Ignasi Elena, announced changes in the police devices at public events, also due to other incidents in Manresa and Vic.
According to data from the Department of the Interior, the ratio of criminal acts in Molins de Rei with 54.2 acts per 1,000 inhabitants is below the Catalan average with 77.6 acts. Total crimes in the city have increased by 6.8 percent, while in Catalonia as a whole it has increased by 7.8 percent.
On the other hand, arrests have increased by 29.7 percent and the Interior assures that “the resolution increases by almost one point.” Regarding the number of officers, in the last three years the Sant Vicenç dels Horts and Sant Feliu de Llobregat police stations that serve Molins de Rei, have incorporated a total of 57 new officers.
