The Minister of the Interior, Joan Ignasi Elena, chaired this Friday at the Egara central police complex, in Sabadell, an extraordinary meeting of the anti-terrorist cabinet of the Mossos d'Esquadra, which was attended by the commanders. Two and a half hours in which the guidelines for action were defined in the complex scenario derived from the conflict in the Middle East, and in which a message was reiterated: “There is no threat in Catalonia, but those derived from the conflict force us not to lower the guard”, according to sources consulted.
And not letting our guard down has translated, for example, into an increase in the overtime pool that allows the Mossos not only to increase the current police points of interest where there is a uniformed presence, but also to increase the list and number of agents. .
Some points of interest in which police officers must have a “much more proactive” attitude. Hence, at the end of the meeting, Chief Commissioner Eduard Sallent already warned that no one should be surprised if in the coming weeks a police officer approaches them at the airport or a train station to ask for their documentation. The order is to identify individuals and vehicles at the slightest suspicion.
The points of police interest that have already appeared since 2005 in the Special Anti-Terrorist Operational Plan (POEA) and some are fixed, such as the Sagrada Familia, the Rambla, the Prat airport or the Sants station. There are others that are added now, such as consular offices, especially the Israeli, North American and French ones; as well as any space linked to the interests of the Jewish or Palestinian community, which has a couple of associations based in Catalonia.
During the meeting, those responsible for the police conveyed the need to “share” all the information related to this operation both with the municipal police and Urban Guards and with private security. It is about, in the words of one attendee, “that the local police know what we are doing, where and why, and that we are also clear about what they do to design joint strategies.” And also include private surveillance in that preventive map.
In the city of Barcelona, for example, this methodology is being carried out normally and very fluidly, according to the sources consulted. The municipal police have an information unit, discreet, but with direct dialogue with their counterparts in the Mossos, the Civil Guard, the National Police and even with the CNI. A unit that receives weekly, like the rest of the Catalan local police officials, the report on jihadist terrorism prepared by the General Information Commissariat of the Mossos.
This Urban Police unit extracts from the confidential police report everything that concerns and interests the city and its police and prepares its own document, which it transfers to the staff. This week, for example, there has been an insistence in all meetings, like the rest of the police, on increasing the self-protection measures of the agents and providing more uniformed presence to police stations.
The Barcelona Urban Guard has also increased the presence of patrols that carry out surveillance rounds at points related to the Jewish community, and also with the spaces of the Palestinian community. And the patrols are especially attentive to the appearance of any graffiti with offensive messages related to the Middle East conflict.
There is higher coordination at a more operational level regarding the investigation of suspicious individuals or groups, which is managed within the CITCO, the Intelligence Center against Terrorism and Organized Crime in which the Ertzaintza and the Mossos are full members. right, the last since 2018, after much political battle.
There this coordination is managed at the highest level. In Catalonia there are coordination tables and a relationship between those responsible for information from the different bodies that passes, according to all the actors consulted, for an “excellent” moment of loyalty.
During the meeting of the Anti-Terrorism Cabinet, those responsible for Information detailed to the rest of the commanders how control has been “reinforced” over people who served sentences for terrorism crimes and who have probation measures.
At the end of the meeting, the Minister of the Interior sent a message of “tranquility” and “calm” to the population, warned against false information and hoaxes, while reiterating his “full and total confidence” in police work.
