Sixth undercover police officer discovered: he posed as an activist in Lleida for two years

BarcelonaAnother case of police infiltration in social and political movements in the Catalan Countries, and this makes six. The latest research of The Direct, published this Tuesday, reveals that a National Police agent spent just over two years infiltrated activism in Lleida, around the pro-independence left. Under the false identity of Joan Llobet Garcia, and graduating from the Ávila Police School just a year before starting the espionage operation, the agent landed in the capital of Segrià in September 2019 and left in November 2021. During this time he was actively involved in the SANT protests against the Proceso sentence (2019) and those in support of the Lleida rapper Pablo Hasél.

The entry channel to the infiltration, according to the report by The Direct, was the La Baula Cooperative Athenaeum, where he became interested in the September 11 protests. He settled in a rented apartment in Lleida and, using his fake ID, enrolled in the advanced training course in Environmental Education and Control at the Lleida School of Labor. He also enrolled at the Club Uppercut Lleida gym, where he practiced kickboxing and muay thai. As early as October, he participated, through Lleida's youth committees, in the demonstrations in response to the Catalan government's condemnation of the October 1st referendum. "I'm absolutely sure he threw stones at the police and built barricades," a classmate of the infiltrator recalls in the report.

It was from that moment on that the agent began to develop his militancy, first joining the SEPC and then joining Endavant. He also became involved with the housing movement, attended meetings of the PAH (National Human Rights Council) in Lleida, and became interested in youth environmentalist activities through Extinction Rebellion. Already in early 2021, he participated in meetings and rallies supporting Hasél, and even spent the night at the University of Lleida rectorate on February 16, 2021, when the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) raided the building to arrest the rapper.

Finally, he left Lleida in early November 2021, claiming that he had found work in Barcelona and that his grandmother's health, who claimed to live in Esparreguera, had worsened. This argument, citing the health of a family member, has been common among the other agents discovered so far when cutting off the infiltration. However, in the case of Joan Llobet, in the Catalan capital he also contacted the pro-independence left, specifically the Casal La Cruïlla del Eixample, and eventually joined a November 25th action against gender-based violence. After that day, the report notes, he never participated in activism again, disconnected his cell phone, and nothing more has been heard.

Complaint and Political Response

As he has discovered The Direct, was agent AGA (according to its acronym), was born in Teruel and is part of the 32nd promotion of the National Police Corps, the same as the agent who infiltrated the Palestine movement and the pro-independence left between 2018 and 2020, one of the six cases uncovered. The anti-repression organization Alerta Solidaria announces that they will prepare a new complaint for the case of the infiltrator in Lleida. Until now, the cases brought to court have not had any progress and the Prosecutor's Office has always rejected that the infiltration and the methods of the discovered agents could constitute a crime.

Representatives of the pro-independence organization Adelante, the Ateneo Cooperativo La Baula and also Alerta Solidaria gathered this morning in front of the Spanish government sub-delegation in Lleida to denounce the new police infiltration. The Athenaeum has announced that it will open its headquarters as a "care space" on Thursday and will hold a meeting to agree on a political response to this police infiltration.

And what does the government say to all this? The regional minister and spokesperson, Sílvia Paneque, has taken a low profile regarding this new case and simply noted that the system offers avenues for "complaints" for those affected if they believe their rights have been violated. In contrast, the spokesperson for ERC in the Parliament denounced the "violations of rights," as did the spokesperson for Junts in the chamber, Mònica Sales, who called the infiltrations an "anti-democratic practice." They are calling for an investigation by the parliamentary committee on police infiltration, something also stated by the spokesperson for the Commons, David Cid, who has "always" defended social movements against espionage and the need for this committee to be established immediately. In response to this complaint of "persecution," CUP spokesperson Laia Estrada asserted that the "PSOE has not assumed any responsibility" for this infiltration strategy, for which it is also blamed.