The minister of the interior, Joan Ignasi Elena, presided yesterday at the central police complex of Egara, in Sabadell, an extraordinary meeting of the anti-terrorist cabinet of the Mossos d’Esquadra, which was attended by the commandos. Two and a half hours in which the guidelines for action were defined in the face of the complex scenario arising from the conflict in the Middle East, and in which a message was reiterated: “There is no threat to Catalonia, but those arising from the conflict they force us not to let our guard down”, according to sources consulted.
And this slogan has not translated, for example, into an increase in the stock of overtime that allows the Mossos not only to increase the current police points of interest where there is a uniformed presence, but to increase the list and the number of agents
Some points of interest in which the police will have to have a “much more proactive” attitude. That is why when the meeting ended the chief commissioner Eduard Sallent already warned that no one should be surprised if in the coming weeks a policeman approaches them at the airport or at a train station to ask for them the documentation The order is to identify individuals and vehicles following the slightest suspicion.
The police points of interest that have appeared since 2005 in the Special Anti-Terrorist Operational Plan (POEA) and some are fixed, such as those at the Sagrada Família, La Rambla, El Prat de Llobregat airport or Sants station . There are others being added now, such as consular offices, especially Israeli, American and French, and any space linked to the interests of the Jewish or Palestinian community, which has a couple of associations with based in Catalonia.
During the meeting, the police officials expressed the need to “share” all the information related to this operation both with the municipal police and urban guards as well as with private security. It is, in the words of an assistant, “that the local police know what we are doing, where and why, and that we also have a clear understanding of what they are doing to design joint strategies”. And also include private surveillance in this preventive map.
In the city of Barcelona, ??for example, this methodology is being carried out normally and very smoothly, according to the sources consulted. The municipal police have an information unit, discreet, but with direct dialogue with their counterparts from the Mossos d’Esquadra, the Civil Guard, the National Police and even the CNI. A unit that receives weekly, like the rest of the Catalan local police officers, the report on jihadist terrorism drawn up by the General Police Information Commission.
This unit of the Urban Guard extracts from the confidential report of the Mossos everything that refers to and is of interest to the city and its police and prepares its own document, which it passes on to the staff. This week, for example, it has been insisted in all the meetings, like the rest of the police, to increase the self-protection measures of the agents and to provide more cash to the police departments.
The Barcelona Urban Guard has also increased the presence of patrols that carry out surveillance rounds in the points related to the Jewish community, and also in the spaces of the Palestinian collective. And the patrols are particularly attentive to the appearance of any graffiti with offensive messages related to the conflict in the Middle East.
There is a higher coordination on a more operational scale regarding the investigation of suspicious individuals or groups, which is managed within Citco, the Intelligence Center against Terrorism and Organized Crime, in which the Ertzaintza and the Mossos are full members, the last since 2018, after much political battle.
This coordination is managed there at the highest level. In Catalonia there are coordination tables and a relationship between the information managers of the various bodies which, according to all the actors consulted, enjoys an “excellent” moment of loyalty.
During the meeting of the anti-terrorist cabinet, the information officers detailed to the other commands how control has been “reinforced” over people who have served sentences for terrorist crimes and who have measures of supervised freedom.
When the meeting ended, the Minister of the Interior sent a message of “tranquillity” and “calm” to the population, warned against false information and falsehoods and also reiterated his “full and total trust” in police work.
