The Tarragona Civil Guard has reinforced security in the province’s critical infrastructure this year. One of the reasons is the war conflicts in the world, such as Israel’s war against Hamas or the one in Ukraine.
The force has increased surveillance at the port of Tarragona, the Reus airport and at the Ascó and Vandellòs nuclear power plants.
“We have received instructions from the Secretary of State to reinforce certain specific objectives, closely linked to Israel, but also to the interests of other countries,” says Lieutenant Colonel of the Tarragona command, Jordi Vergel.
In fact, it highlights that the 25 agents of the new Citizen Security unit, which will be deployed shortly, will carry out tasks in these infrastructures.
Since this month of October, 25 Civil Guard agents are training at the Tarragona command to join the new Citizen Security unit of the body in the district, which will be operational in mid-January of next year.
This unit is already underway in other places in Spain, but in the demarcation it is newly created. According to Verger, this is a “success” because it allows them to improve the “capabilities” in critical infrastructures.
“There are times when in these infrastructures there is an increase in either the threat or a specific event that requires strengthening or increasing the level of security,” he details.
As an example, the lieutenant colonel explains that the port of Tarragona receives one or two cruise ships on summer Sundays and this means the arrival of many tourists to the port facilities. “It is necessary to reinforce security,” he says.
The same occurs at the Ascó and Vandellòs nuclear power plants when fuel or material reloads occur. “In these cases, many workers arrive and the increase in people makes the risks also increase,” he comments.
The agents of the new unit, he emphasizes, will also be in charge of other tasks, such as participating in investigations on terrorist elements, drug trafficking or in the field of communication routes, among others. “This unit is specially prepared to carry out this type of controls. The person is identified, a vehicle search is carried out and an activity is carried out to locate possible drug trafficking or other types of criminal activity,” he adds.
Asked if they have increased surveillance and security in critical infrastructure as a result of the war in Israel and Palestine, he affirms that they have done so in the Spanish government subdelegation building and in the maritime area “because although there is no interest Specifically in these countries, there is a nuclear power plant that is very close and, therefore, the threat could also come from this area.”
According to the police official, the most common crimes against the environment are illegal constructions on undeveloped or rural sunny land. Specifically, the agents of the Seprona unit have quantified nineteen in 2023. The previous year, they recorded eight crimes. As an example, it also states that in the case of animal abuse there are five this year, exactly the same as last year, and five more due to polluting emissions into the atmosphere produced in clandestine workshops.
“In total, we have 34 crimes, with 45 people arrested or investigated. In any case, the most common are infractions; people fishing in unauthorized places or without a license; we have a lot,” Verger assesses. The police official explains that the number of crimes detected has not changed much compared to last year. However, he asserts that in summer the presence of many people causes environmental crimes to increase greatly in the area of ??natural parks.
On the other hand, it highlights the actions to control the entry of products irregularly within the framework of European actions to detect goods that do not carry the mandatory EU control labeling. Verger details that they inspect small businesses.
“We are finding cosmetics that have not entered through legal means and that may contain materials that may be harmful. We also find in some bazaars the sale of pyrotechnic devices that do not have control seals either, therefore, they have not passed the security systems and are much more dangerous,” he exemplifies.
Now, ahead of the Christmas campaign, they will also intensify police work to detect toys that have not passed quality controls. “They are small actions that end with the confiscation of the material and its removal. For us it is very relevant so that we have a safer, freer society; we believe that these actions that go more unnoticed, added together, have a deterrent effect and impact in society,” he summarizes. Last year, they carried out 2,924 actions in the Tarragona region that resulted in 11,061 seized products. This year, a similar number, 11,291 items, has been seized in 2,859 police actions.
At the same time, Verger assures that the relationship with the Mossos is good and that the will of the commanders of all the police forces is collaboration. “We must collaborate first because it is an obligation and second because we improve a lot in efficiency when we work together,” he values. In this sense, he emphasizes that the police results obtained in the joint operations with the Mossos, the National Police and the local police, within the framework of their respective powers, have been “very positive.”
In the case of the maritime field, Verger recalls that the Civil Guard has had the powers since the beginning of the nineties and that since then they have continued to carry out the tasks normally. In fact, he emphasizes that the powers of the Generalitat, and of the maritime units of the Mossos, at sea are only administrative. “From the Civil Guard there is nothing to say about the deployment of Mossos in the maritime field within the framework of its powers,” he maintains.
And along those same lines, he points out that the same thing happens on the ground: “just as it doesn’t seem bad to them to see one of our patrols on the ground, it will never seem bad to me to see a Mossos patrol vehicle – on the mar-, the important thing is to maintain the framework of each one’s competencies,” he argues. And he closes by assuring that if they need support from the Catalan police, they will ask: “it falls within the framework of usual collaboration and the sea is no different than other areas.”
