The Mossos d’Esquadra have arrested 16 people as a result of an investigation conducted by a Reus court against a criminal organization that acted under the guise of a legal company to carry out extrajudicial evictions throughout the Catalan territory. The group, which acted under the name Antiokupa Tarraco, used coercive and violent practices to get real estate vacated in exchange for money.
Those arrested in the operation are between 17 and 59 years old, and 11 more people are being investigated in relation to the same events. The court has ordered imprisonment without bail for two of the detainees, while it has provisionally released six of them, although they must be available to the court whenever required, reports the TSJC.
According to the police statement, those arrested “acted in some cases motivated by hatred and discrimination based on origin, race or ethnicity, and were especially violent and expeditious against people belonging to groups of certain national or ethnic origins.”
In fact, five of the detainees have a record of coercion, threats, degrading treatment, injuries, damages and robberies with force. During the arrests, which were carried out last Wednesday, entries were made at homes in L’Hospitalet de l’Infant, Salou and Reus, although other arrests were made in Sant Joan Despí, Rubí, Mataró and Barcelona.
During the house searches, the police seized two firearms, in addition to various prohibited weapons, documentation, as well as large amounts of cash and checking accounts.
The organization was expanding, since the number and severity of the events were increasing. The company operated under the guise of offering its clients a mediation service to vacate tenants from real estate they owned. At first, they tried to get the occupants to leave the home voluntarily through a series of agreements, but if they refused, extortion and violent harassment began.
The first action was recurring visits to the tenants and telephone threats. And if they still did not achieve the desired effect, they proceeded to cut off the basic supplies of the home, where they also caused damage and damage. If these actions did not achieve their objective either, “they increased the seriousness of the events, causing serious damage, false complaints to various public organizations, home invasions, forced burglaries inside homes, and, in some cases, even carrying out robberies. violent acts and serious injuries to some of the tenants.” Some of these episodes even occurred in the presence of minors.
It should be noted that the company under investigation used the cover of a law firm to give the appearance of legality to its actions. It turns out that the owner of this law firm was a partner in the company, along with the detainee who led the organization. However, the research also allowed us to detect how some of the clients actively participated in the actions, were knowledgeable about the methods used and became necessary collaborators of the group.
The dismantling of the organization has made it possible to solve 60 incidents in various parts of Catalan territory. The investigation remains open and more arrests are not ruled out.
