They are often stretched out on a towel, pretending, and even sometimes go into the water for a while to cool off. They are looking for their next victim. When they find one, they wait. They only spring into action if one of these two conditions is met: if the target goes for a swim and no one is watching their belongings, or if the victim falls into a deep sleep. If this happens, the thief walks up to the towel, grabs everything the person has, and leaves the beach. When the victim returns from the water or wakes up, they realize they have been robbed of everything. Their wallet, their phone, and also their clothes and shoes.

"When I leave there, my political career has been scorched," comments Manel Prat about his time as director general of the police. From 2011 to 2014, he held this position, at a time he admits was "socially turbulent," but "not as much" as that of his successors with the arrival of the Catalan independence process (Procés). Prat arrived young at the Generalitat, as head of institutional relations for the Department of Health in 2002 and later as chief of staff for Felip Puig, who, when he was Minister of the Interior, trusted him with one of the Government's most delicate portfolios, that of directing the Mossos (Catalan police). "You know where you're putting yourself and you do it with the utmost dignity," he explains.

The trigger was a trivial matter. The argument started with a comment like "are you looking at me funny" and one of the involved parties left. But he returned with an electric scooter and shot at the group he had argued with. This happened a week ago in the Raval district of Barcelona. Two people ended up arrested and no one was injured. This is one of the cases that shows, according to police sources, that it is being detected how firearms are appearing more and more often in new contexts, situations that are not linked to organized crime or large drug mafias.

Summarizing more than 1,200 pages divided into three books and more than nine hours of film divided into three films –and, therefore, apologies to the fans–, The Lord of the Rings tells the story of how the hobbits, elves, men, and dwarves of Middle-earth – J.R.R. Tolkien's alternative and fantastic world – united to fight evil and to try to destroy the one ring, an evil jewel with which the world could be dominated. Just when a new season of the series "The Rings of Power" is about to premiere, and a new film in this universe is being filmed, the Gràcia neighborhood is proposing itself as a luxury setting for new productions. Right now in the center of Barcelona there are several Gollums – the owner of the ring for many years, a creature that inspires both fear and pity – dragons, a magical forest, and a wizard Gandalf. But Gràcia does not only remember The Lord of the Rings for this.

A fire is burning in the lungs of Barcelona, on the Collserola mountain. A large contingent of the Barcelona Firefighters and the Generalitat are working to extinguish the fire, which started around 3:25 PM in the part of the massif located between the Catalan capital and Esplugues de Llobregat. Emergency teams had requested the preventive confinement of the Can Caralleu neighborhood, a measure that has now been lifted. In parallel, the Guàrdia Urbana located and arrested a person in the vicinity of the fire, after detecting suspicious behavior and speaking with witnesses. The individual has been transferred to police facilities pending the outcome of the investigation, now in the hands of the Agents Rurals.

Firu agilely gets out of the van where he was waiting –with the air conditioning on– wagging his tail. He wants to play. His handler leads him towards the ramp leading to the festival entrance, with a crowd of people heading towards the access controls. The handler lets himself be led by Firu, who, hyperactive, weaves between the legs of the attendees. Some pet him, others comment on how beautiful he is, this German Shepherd, until he starts to circle a young man and sits down in front of him.

The queue is four people long. The first comes to pick up a package and their turn passes quickly. The second wants to send money to family living abroad. They fill out a form and the employee makes the transfer effective. The third comes to pick up another package, which they also collect in a hurry. The business presents itself on its sign as a call center that also handles international fax and money transfers and calls abroad. Through the shop window, however, it looks like the typical phone shop, like many scattered around Barcelona. They display external batteries, headphones, mobile accessories, and also some mobile phones. In fact, a large sticker shows the new iPhone model. The exact request of the fourth customer is whether they have any second-hand mobile phones for sale. The employee replies unequivocally: "We don't sell phones here."

The Mossos d'Esquadra have arrested a man allegedly linked to the violent death of another person this Thursday in the Nou Barris district of Barcelona. As the ARA has learned, around 12:40 PM, agents of the Guàrdia Urbana found a wounded and bloodied man leaving a residence. Despite his critical condition, he tried to grab a motorcycle but fell to the ground. At that moment, the agents alerted the Mossos d'Esquadra and the Emergency Medical System (SEM).

The Mossos d'Esquadra have arrested a 33-year-old man accused of assaulting a 13-year-old minor with a bladed weapon in Puigcerdà. According to police sources, the assault occurred around 9 PM this Wednesday next to a stream, in the area of the Cucurú fountain, a natural space near the town, as reported by "The Case and ARA has confirmed it.

8,233,788. These are the inhabitants of Catalonia as of this Thursday. Up to 72,150 more people than a year ago and 32,000 more than six months ago, according to the latest report prepared by the National Statistics Institute (INE). The annual growth of Catalan territory is around 1%, although the country's population would have a negative trend if it were not for the arrival of foreign people, a usual dynamic for years. Right now, there are 90,000 more foreign residents than a year ago. In total, there are 2.15 million people born outside the State, which accounts for 26.2% of the population. That is, one in every four inhabitants of Catalonia.

On July 8, the Supreme Court issued a ruling confirming that pushbacks of migrants attempting to reach Spain by swimming are illegal. The high court set its doctrine based on the case of an Algerian boy who tried to reach Ceuta by swimming and was handed over to Moroccan authorities. Eighteen days after this judicial decision, on July 30, hundreds of people made the same journey and accessed the autonomous city by swimming from Morocco. After negotiating the return of the vast majority of them to their country of origin, the Spanish government has installed a 500-meter buoy barrier, lent by the army, on the maritime border. Now Melilla has announced that it will do the same.

It was sold as a concentrated vanilla, in liquid form, ideal for adding a few drops to coffee, accompanying some desserts, and even, now that it's summer, for combining with good ice cream. But it wasn't just any vanilla: it came directly from Mexico, the territory where this product originates and from which colonizers exported it to Europe five hundred years ago. It was twelve tons of vanilla making the same journey: leaving Jalisco and traveling on board a maritime container to France, then boarding a truck and being transported to a logistics center in Barcelona, the last stop before the final destination, an isolated farmhouse in Almenar, in El Segrià. But what were twelve tons of Mexican vanilla essence doing on a farm far from everything and with a swimming pool in a Lleida town of 3,000 inhabitants?

"The main problem in Barcelona is drugs." This is so, in the words of the third Deputy Mayor for Security of the Barcelona City Council, Albert Batlle, due to the effects it has on people who consume them, such as violent attitudes and health problems, but also on residents who have a square downstairs where consumption often takes place or on the same landing a flat where substances are sold. But also for people who travel around the city and have an accident with a driver who was drugged. "The vast majority of coexistence problems are related to drugs," Batlle continued, adding that there is a "banalization" of it. For this reason, the Guardia Urbana has created the Druida plan, presented this Tuesday at a press conference.

A resident of the Lloret Residencial urbanization opened the dumpster and saw a human arm sticking out. It was Friday and within minutes this spot in La Selva was swarming with police. Inside the dumpster was the body of a man with clear signs of violence. In fact, he had been shot.

She had been mistreating her for more than ten years and she had ended up in a house for women victims of gender violence. The assaults were continuous, but she never reported it for fear that he would kill her or harm her two children, only eight and four years old. This dramatic situation is what the woman who died last Tuesday night in the Sant Martí district of Barcelona was experiencing, stabbed by her partner, who this Friday the court for violence against women has sent to preventive detention. In her ruling, the judge highlights the testimony of the victim's friends, who describe a spiral of constant and lasting violence.

The Mossos d'Esquadra are investigating the discovery of a corpse in a container in the Lloret Blau urbanization, in Lloret de Mar. According to police sources, it is currently being investigated as a homicide, as the body shows evident signs of criminality. Although the victim has not yet been identified, it has been confirmed that it is a man. It is also not clear how long he has been dead.

One of the most complicated moments of this year's fire season was last July 6, when the Generalitat Firefighters had to face a difficult scenario of simultaneity with two worrying fires in Carme, in Anoia, and in Sentmenat while they were still fighting the flames in La Bisbal d'Empordà. The Anoia fire burned more than 450 hectares of forest and agricultural land, affected businesses and homes, and required the confinement of seven nearby municipalities and the evacuation of a housing development. Help was even requested from the Military Emergencies Unit (UME). This Thursday it has become known how the first spark of this fire was lit, and it was not an accident.

At least eighteen dead and thousands of illegal entries in a single day. Ceuta has been experiencing a day of high migratory pressure since Wednesday night. In the early hours of the morning, hundreds of Moroccan citizens - and some Algerians - had thrown themselves into the sea from the coast of Castillejos to try to reach the Ceuta coast by swimming, about two kilometers away. The attempts did not stop, both by sea and by land, throughout the day. While at noon thousands swam to the border fence and jumped over it, from 3:30 p.m. onwards, other thousands skirted the Moroccan jetty to access the city on foot. In the evening, the pace of entries through the Tarajal border crossing continued, even though Moroccan authorities used tear gas and water cannons to try to disperse the crowd. And at night, the Spanish government closed the Beni Enzar border crossing, the only one operating between Morocco and Melilla, due to the numerous groups heading towards the border at night.

The Mossos d'Esquadra are investigating a new homicide in Catalonia. A man has died from stab wounds this Wednesday evening on Manuel Fernández Márquez street, in the La Mina neighborhood of Sant Adrià de Besòs. For now, no one has been arrested.

It was one-thirty in the morning this Wednesday and all of Barcelona's police had his photo and were looking for him. The man turned himself in at the Mossos d'Esquadra police station in Eixample, located in Plaça d'Espanya. He was deeply disturbed. In fact, he initially received psychiatric treatment. Finally, however, the police arrested him as the alleged perpetrator of the murder of his partner, a 34-year-old woman, a few hours earlier at their family home, on Andrade street, in the Sant Martí district. It was not the first time the police had been to that address.