Terrorism in Catalonia
National police warned jihadists in 2015 that the Mossos investigated them
The operation "Charon" against a jihadist terrorist cell preparing attacks in Catalonia, disarticulated by the Catalan police two years ago, showed the hostility of the Government of Rajoy and Interior, led by Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz, against the Generalitat, Which extended even to the anti-terrorist struggle of the Mossos d'Esquadra.
The Operation Charon, initiated by the Mossos d'Esquadra in 2014 against a jihadist terrorist cell in Catalonia, prepared to kill and with a few obstacles could be disarticulated in 2015 by the Catalan police, showed the hostility of the Government of Rajoy and Of the Ministry of the Interior, directed at that time by Jorge Fernández Díaz, against the Government of the Generalitat and its autonomic police services.
This criminal organization was disarticulated and the 10 members of its terrorist cell were detained, as well as a very special accomplice: a Neo-Nazi militant, friend of the jihadi leader, who had asked him for assistance in accessing weapons and explosives for the purpose of To attack Jewish interests in Barcelona.
Finally, in spite of the police reports, the National Court agreed not to impute in the case to that extreme right-wing ex-MSD and member of SOM. The reason for his exoneration was because, according to the instructor's order, the neo-Nazi finally "did not collaborate with the terrorists". However, the arsenal and ammunition of war occupied in your home will not be returned. The rest of the band awaits in jail the celebration of the trial.
With the blockade from the Spanish Ministry of Interior preventing the Mossos from accessing conventional networks of international anti-terrorist police information, it was necessary to add "the interference of agents of the National Police in an open case, with the sole mission of boycotting the antiterrorist investigation Who were carrying out units of information of the Mossos d'Esquadra, that counted on agent and informers infiltrados ", according to the denunciation of the Catalan autonomic police.
National Police officers "alerted the alleged jihadist terrorists that they were being investigated by the Catalan police." A few days later the Mossos denounced the facts before the National Court and the Prosecutor's Office. As a result of that denunciation a political storm broke out between the Generalitat and the central Government, with hard crosses of accusations that were widely reflected in the press of the time.
The Mossos d'Esquadra, marginalized by Rajoy
The Interior Ministry has repeatedly refused to respond to the requests of the Government of the Generalitat to include the Mossos d'Esquadra in the main international police information networks for the fight against terrorism, both Interpol, Europol, SIENA and SIRENE, as well as Spanish CITCO, the Center for Intelligence against Terrorism and Organized Crime.
Different sources situate the conflict arisen during the investigation of the "Operation Charon" as a critical point in the hostilities between the PP Government and the Government of Catalonia in police matters. "If the Popular Party had in their hands the possibility of reversing the hegemony of the Mossos d'Esquadra in the territory of Catalonia, it would have done so, leaving the regional police as a folkloric entity to be seen in parties to guard," they point out To choir syndicalists of the autonomic police, consulted by Public.
In this sense, the agents remember the hostility to the Government of Catalunya manifested repeatedly by the exministro of the Interior Fernandez Diaz, who in the middle of 2015 went to the step to deny the reports of national police to presumed terrorists. His official reply implicitly conveyed his clear distrust towards the Generalitat police, despite being a police force of the Spanish state: "The fight and the antiterrorist policy must be of State, and can not be left in the hands of those who do not Has the slightest sense of state, "the minister said on May 14, 2015, following a meeting with his counterparts in the Sahel.
Soon came the timely response from then Interior Minister Ramon Espadaler: "The Minister [Jorge Fernández Díaz] feels that the Mossos are efficient in the fight against terrorism. I, on the other hand, am glad that the state security forces are efficient in the same struggle. " But he added that the case is not a fight between the National Police and the Mossos, it is not a fight, but an alleged criminal action by members of the National Police.
The police jihadist jihadist
The facts denounced by the Mossos to the Central Court of Instruction number 1 of the National Court, together with a report dated November 24, 2014, which considers the actions of the national police compatible with an alleged crime of "disclosure of secrets" Committed by public officials.
According to the complaint, four National Police officers, including an inspector and a chief inspector, alerted in November 2014 members of the jihadist cell "Islamic Fraternity-Group for Jihad Preaching", which is part of the Global Jihadist movement And ideologically related to the Islamic State (DAESH), which were being investigated by the Mossos d'Esquadra.
The Ministry of the Interior, through the Directorate General of the Police - then under the control of Ignacio Cosidó - had information that the Mossos were investigating an emerging jihadi group, which was being radicalized and operating in Terrassa.
All indications are that the agents of the National Police Corps decided for unknown reasons intervene on their own in the investigation, without informing the Catalan police enabled in this case by the National Court, and directly contact the members of this terrorist cell under construction .
To do this, the agents of the National Police contacted a regular informant of Mataró, "who provided three photographs of the individuals that were of interest, in order that the confidant alerted the jihadists who were being watched by The autonomic police ".
The usual confidant of the National Police was not familiar with the details of Terrasa and how to locate them, but he did know of someone who could help him in the task. It was another Spaniard, son and grandson of policemen, also a Christian converted to Islam as the confidant, who did know them.
Thus, on November 7, 2014, both of them showed up at a shop located at number 196 of Sant Damià Street, in Terrassa, where one of the jihadists who are members of the terrorist cell works at that time.
At that time there were several other members of the group gathered in the premises, among them the agent of the Mossos infiltrated in the group, whose role as an undercover agent was authorized by the Prosecutor's Office and the National Court on October 20, 2014.
Both national police informers, following their instructions, entered and addressed the group, introduced themselves and began to warn them that they knew what they were doing and "not to follow the path of Jihad, which was not the right path." In addition, they informed members of the jihadist cell "that a [national] police chief had told them that the Mossos were investigating all those present, and that in about three weeks they were going to detain them all. He also explained that this policeman showed them several photographs of the suspects, allegedly taken in the course of police surveillance, to corroborate this information, "according to the Mossos report.
After that meeting of "revealing secrets to investigated by terrorism" both collaborators of the National Police happened to become also objective of Mossos d'Esquadra.
Thus on November 17, 2014, ten days later, the Mossos detected one of them gathered in a bar with two other unknown persons, who would later be identified as an inspector and a chief inspector of the Barcelona Provincial Information Brigade National Police Corps, according to the research report. This meeting was videotaped by the Catalan police in collaboration with agents of the National Intelligence Center, the CNI. That is, agents of the Catalan police, working together with the Spanish secret services investigating inspectors of the National Police.
After the denunciation and summons of the inspectors before the judge Santiago Pedraz of the National Audience, this finally agreed the archiving of the cause when considering that there was no crime.
However, the Generalitat denounced the facts before the Prosecutor's Office, providing the testimonies of the same informers of the National Police, who reported to the audience that they had received pressures from these same police officers. One of them was interviewed by two journalists from El Periódico de Catalunya. Who gathered their testimony on video while keeping their identity hidden.
Crisis in the fight against terrorism
Undoubtedly, beyond the scope of legal consequences and actions, this fact reveals a clear conflict within the Spanish Government when it comes to managing the fight against terrorism, the relationship between the State and the autonomous security bodies and Access to sensitive information.
Meanwhile, former Minister Fernández Díaz prevented the Mossos from accessing the international intelligence and anti-terrorist services and police information, the Vice-President of the Government, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, from whom the CNI directly depended, did not oppose the collaboration of the Intelligence services with the Mossos d'Esquadra, including to investigate the National Police.
Now, the CNI is again under the control of the Ministry of Defense, with the Minister Cospedal, and the new Minister of the Interior, Juan Ignacio Zoido, has maintained the veto that the Mossos d'Esquadra were integrated into the police intelligence services Internationally until, following the attack in Barcelona, he promised that he would open access to Europol from September.
