The Catalunya Motorcycling Grand Prix has already started. The 71,855 fans have their eyes on the asphalt, where Aleix Espargaró and Maverick Viñales are fighting to take the MotoGP victory. The noise is deafening. Meanwhile, a man wanders alone through one of the car parks at the circuit site where thousands of motorbikes are parked. The air patrols of the Mossos get their attention. The drones stand at his height, zoom in on the image through the cameras they have inserted and capture exactly what he is doing: scrapping some motorbikes and then selling the parts on the black market. A unit of public security agents, in coordination with the operational room set up ad hoc to guarantee security during the Grand Prix, provides the location. The agents accelerate and find the individual. They search him and check his bag. He has stolen the front of a motorbike and some brake calipers. He is arrested. A patrol takes him to the Mollet del Vallès police station, one of the closest to the Circuit de Catalunya.
Half an hour before the start of the first race, Moto 3, the drone sweeps the parking lot and captures a man with a suspicious attitude looking curiously at the parked motorcycles. A patrol goes to him and identifies him. He hadn’t stolen anything yet and the presence of the patrol made him a fugitive.
Yesterday’s security device resulted in eleven identifications and one arrest, very positive figures that show that the Circuit has become a very undesirable area to steal. “The pickpockets already know that we put a lot of pressure on them and that they have nothing to do with it. And now, in addition, with the drones we detect them faster”, explains sub-inspector Lluís Gómez, who has been coordinating the security operations of the Circuit’s major events such as MotoGP and Formula 1 for twenty years. The previous day, during the training day and the sprint race, the drones captured how two pickpockets stole three motorcycle helmets and two fronts. They were also arrested. “Especially those who dare look for motorcycle fronts and parts that then end up on the black market, because they are very expensive,” says investigative sergeant Jordi Lacalle.
Drones have been very useful in detecting pickpockets who infiltrate the circuit’s surroundings. This technology was implemented a few years ago and has become a first-rate police tool that allows any area to be controlled from the air, no matter how frequented it is. They are used on a day-to-day basis, but they are particularly important at mass events such as a Barça-Madrid match, the Mobile World Congress or the motorcycling Grand Prix. “With the drones, the sky opened up for us”, comments the deputy head of the northern metropolitan region, Toni Sánchez. “We can get anywhere and it’s much more discreet”, he adds.
Drones are piloted by a specific unit. For the security device of the Grand Prix there are two outside and one inside the circuit, which collaborates with the Mossos but which depends on the organization of the event. “We are in contact with the coordination center and depending on what they need, we go there with the drone and give them images”, remarks one of the unit managers. Unmanned aircraft move at the request of the control room and provide support to units deployed around the circuit.
Yesterday, there were citizen security agents (in uniform), plainclothes (infiltrated among the fans known as fura), fireworks, information agents, riot police who controlled the entrances to the circuit and also the helicopter.
During drone operations, the Kuppel system is also deployed, which is activated if an unmanned aircraft is detected flying over the event airspace without authorization. The Mossos system has the ability to inhibit the signal of the prohibited drone and detect the location of the pilot, who faces a hefty fine. “What this system does is cancel the signal with the drone. The drone has a link and what we do is to break this link with the pilot, and when he realizes that the drone is not doing well and does not respond to him, what he does is return”, reports the head of the drone unit .
Invading the airspace without authorization involves the imposition of an administrative penalty that starts at 6,000 euros. During the Grand Prix, the Mossos did not detect any external drones in breach of the regulations, but there have been other occasions when they have. “At the Catalunya Rally, for example, we detected a few. People play it because the aerial images are visually very pleasing, but this is prohibited”, he adds.
