The head of the National Police in Catalonia, Luis Fernando Pascual, will head to Madrid. The Ministry of the Interior has revealed one of the unknowns that caused the most buzz within the force: who will be in charge of the Judicial Police Station, one of the units with the most weight in the structure, since the fight against corruption depends on it, specialized crime, drug trafficking or organized crime, among others.
The position had been vacant since last fall, when the previous chief commissioner Rafael Pérez retired. The pools indicated that Pérez’s natural replacement would be his number two, the main commissioner María Pilar Merino. But in the end she will not be a woman who pilots the Judicial Police, despite the fact that she has enormous prestige among magistrates and prosecutors.
Sources from the management of the National Police assure that the decision has been made based on professional criteria, thinking about the operational size of the vacant position, which will have more than 10,000 uniformed personnel under its command. The Central Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF), the Drug and Organized Crime Unit (UDYCO) and the Specialized and Violent Crime Unit (UDEV) are under the umbrella of the Judicial Police.
Pascual, who joined the force in 1982, has been at the head of the Higher Police Headquarters of Catalonia since October 2021. Like his predecessor in office, José Antonio Togores, he has worked on the path of dialogue, collaboration and collaboration. cooperation with the Mossos d’Esquadra. Currently, according to police sources, “the relationship is extraordinary,” after that stage of breaking with the underlying process. The same sources explain that the interim term at the head of the Police in Catalonia will be “very short.” The replacement has already been decided, but for now secrecy is being kept.
The next general commissioner of the Judicial Police took his first steps in uniform at the L’Hospitalet de Llobregat Police Station and the Higher Headquarters of Catalonia. Subsequently, he moved to the Operational Subdirectorate and, in 1989, he moved to the Higher Headquarters of Aragon. In 1995 he was transferred to the Provincial Police Station of Huesca, where he held operational and management responsibilities. After his promotion in 2020 to main commissioner, he took charge of the Zaragoza Provincial Police Station.
He has received several decorations, including a Cross of Police Merit with a Red Badge and two with a White Badge, as well as numerous public congratulations and recognitions from other institutions, such as the silver professional merit medal from the Zaragoza City Council.
