The motorcycle Grand Prix of Catalonia has already started. The 71,855 fans are with their eyes on the asphalt where Aleix Espargaró and Maverick Viñales fight to win the MotoGP. The noise is deafening. Meanwhile, a man wanders alone through one of the car parks of the circuit site where there are thousands of motorcycles parked. To the air patrols of the Mossos it draws their attention. The drones hover at his height, magnify the image through the embedded cameras and capture exactly what he is doing: he scraps some bikes and then sells the parts on the black market. A unit of citizen security agents, in coordination with the operational room set up ad hoc to guarantee security during the Grand Prix, provided the location. The agents accelerate and find the individual. They search him and check his bag. He has stolen the front of a motorcycle and some brake calipers. He is stopped.
A patrol car takes him to the Mollet del Vallès police station, one of the closest to the Circuit de Barcelona-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, curiously looking at the parked motorcycles. A patrol goes towards him and identifies him. He hadn’t stolen anything yet and the presence of the patrol scares him away.
Yesterday’s security device resulted in eleven identifications and one arrest, very positive figures that show that the Circuit has become a very unappetizing area to steal. “Pickpockets already know that we put a lot of pressure on them and that they have nothing to do. And now, also with the drones, we can detect them faster”, explains sub-inspector Lluís Gómez, who has coordinated the security operations of the Circuit’s big events such as MotoGP and Formula 1 for twenty years. The day before, during the practice day and the sprint race, the drones captured how two pickpockets stole three helmets and two motorcycle fronts. They were also arrested. “Above all, those who dare look for motorcycle fronts and parts that later end up on the black market because they are very expensive,” says research sergeant Jordi Lacalle.
Drones have proven very useful in detecting pickpockets infiltrating the vicinity of the circuit. 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 crowded it may be. The devices are used on a day-to-day basis, but they take on special importance in massive events such as Barça-Madrid, the Mobile World Congress or the motorcycle Grand Prix. “With the drones, the sky opened up for us,” says the deputy chief of the northern metropolitan region, Toni Sánchez. “We can get anywhere and it’s much more discreet,” he adds.
The drones are piloted by a specific unit. For the Grand Prix security device there are two outside and one inside the circuit that collaborates with the Mossos but depends on the organization of the event. “We are in contact with the coordination center and depending on what they need, we go with the drone and give them images”, remarks one of the managers of the unit. The unmanned aircraft move at the request of the control room and provide support to the units deployed throughout the circuit.
Yesterday in Montmeló there were citizen security agents (in uniform), in plain clothes (infiltrated among the fans, called furas), bomb squads, information agents, riot police controlling 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 airspace of the event 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 large fine. “What this system does is cancel the signal with the drone. The drone has a link and what we do is break that 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 go back, ”says the person in charge of the drone unit. .
Invading the airspace without authorization entails the filing of an administrative sanction that starts from 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. “In the Catalunya rally, for example, we detected a few. People risk it because the aerial images are visually very pleasing, but that is prohibited, ”he adds.
