A joint operation by the National Police, the Mossos d'Esquadra and the Guàrdia Urbana de Barcelona against the alleged authors of a large number of graffiti done on railway infrastructures has ended with the arrest of 21 people in Barcelona, Vilanova and the Geltrú, Tarragona and Madrid. In total, more than 200 crimes of damage exceeding one million euros are attributed to them.
In recent years, an increase in the vandalism of trains and metros has been detected, especially through graffiti on carriages and installations that cause serious material damage.
Among those arrested in this operation are some of the alleged perpetrators of the acts of vandalism on January 21 on lines 2 and 4 of the Barcelona metro, which forced the trains to stop. There are also individuals involved in the damage to the municipal sewerage facilities located in Passeig Sant Joan in the Catalan capital, where these subjects entered one night to celebrate a botellot.
In addition to the damage, repeatedly reported by railway operators, especially in Catalonia, where this phenomenon is quite widespread, the impact of these uncivil acts directly affects the train and metro service, as it causes delays and stoppages in the service and a clear detriment to public transport users.
It coincides that the action of these subjects also extended to railway infrastructures in the cities of Copenhagen (Denmark), Malmö (Sweden) and Oslo (Norway). It has been proven that the vast majority of those investigated have residence in Catalonia, although they also traveled to different cities in the rest of the Spanish territory, even in other European countries, to carry out the actions.
This criminal itinerancy has made it difficult to identify the perpetrators and prosecute the crimes, so several police investigations have had to be carried out through Interpol-Madrid to inform the police and judicial authorities of the countries affected by the criminal acts allegedly committed by the investigated .
The graffiti artists always signed and recorded themselves to share the actions on social networks and gain followers. The final phase of the operation took place in different municipalities in the provinces of Barcelona and Tarragona, as well as in Madrid.
The general public security police station, the mobile transport police brigade and the Barcelona provincial information brigade of the National Police, in collaboration with the Mossos transport police, have carried out various operations against these graffiti groups. Operation Despertar, developed in 2021, with the arrest of 103 people, who were blamed for damage to trains and railway infrastructure in Catalonia valued at more than 22 million euros, should be highlighted. This was followed by other operations, such as those called Return, also investigated by the Mossos d'Esquadra and the National Police, Tramuntana and Amanecer, carried out in 2022 and 2023.
