In recent years, groups of vandals have broken up some major festivals where nothing had ever happened before. The last episode occurred this weekend in Molins de Rei, but before that it had already happened during the 2021 Mercè, to a lesser extent in 2022, and was reproduced in municipalities such as Sant Feliu de Llobregat in the same years. It is as if with the Mercè the starting signal was given to a wave of violence that spreads through some metropolitan municipalities taking advantage of their end-of-summer celebrations. As if vandalism took the tram and stopped at each station. Next stop: Sant Feliu de Llobregat festival. The City Council has already urgently requested a meeting with the Mossos d'Esquadra and the municipal police to reinforce security during the festivities that begin on October 11. “We are dismayed by the incidents in Molins and we have already requested an emergency meeting this morning with police officials,” indicates the first deputy mayor of Sant Feliu, Javier Molina.
In the case of Molins de Rei, the Catalan police have already identified four of the assailants and just yesterday two - residents of Santa Coloma de Gramanet and Pallejà - were arrested. One of them was arrested by plainclothes agents from Barcelona after stealing a cell phone.
That is the profile of the rest of the riot comrades. Groups of pickpockets, careless thieves, with a history, who go or coincide in the crowds of the major festivals. And once there, if the theft of phones or wallets becomes complicated, they improvise a plan B and cause riots followed by assaults in establishments.
Those responsible for the southern metropolitan police region of the Mossos held a meeting early yesterday to analyze the events in Molins. It was chaired by the commissioner of the region, Miquel Esquius, and attended by those responsible for the criminal investigation area, information and the head of the Sant Feliu police station, which is in charge of Molins de Rei. The commanders shared all the information from the weekend and ruled out that it was an organized group that expressly went to the main festival with the idea of participating in 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.
The episode of vandalism is very reminiscent of what already happened in Barcelona at the Mercè festivities last year, when a group of teenagers with the same profile not only carried out a barrage of phone thefts, but also after the concerts in Plaza Espanya carried out acts of vandalism, looting and destruction in the streets of Sants.
In Molins de Rei, the group advanced to the Plaza del Ajuntament, after destroying a dealership and building a bonfire that they fueled with everything they found from the car store. They crossed containers in the street, used construction fences and broke down until they reached a Vodafone store, next to the municipal market, after also vandalizing a Sabadell branch.
By then, the initial group had been joined by local youths who yelled at the criminals and at times joined in the smash-and-burn spree. In the mobile phone store they destroyed all the devices on display, tore three televisions from the wall and took three other laptops. However, they could not access the warehouse where they kept the rest of the terminals for sale to the public. During the riots, no slogans or protest graffiti were raised. Therefore, there is no fixed political or social group in which to place them.
In Molins de Rei there were already altercations two years ago. There was a stabbing, several fights and the awnings of two bus stops and a bank were broken. Those riots forced the City Council to deploy the largest police force in the history of the festivities the following year, although there were some minor fights. In the neighboring municipality, in Sant Feliu, in 2021 there was a massive theft of cell phones, several fights and a stabbing. “At that time, the explanations that the police gave us were that the riots were carried out by young people who had not been able to go out at night for a long time due to the restrictions of the pandemic,” explains the former mayor of Sant Feliu, Lidia Muñoz. However, given the profile of the vandals and the numerous records they have accumulated behind them, the reality seems to be different. The mayor of Molins stressed yesterday that this situation "exceeds the local level and surpasses the town councils." “We need to reflect as a country and treat this reality with another formula to combat it from another perspective,” he indicated. Meanwhile, the former mayor of Sant Feliu remembers that “the Molins festivals serve as a thermometer to know what can happen next in Sant Feliu.”
