They were illegally harvesting tons of mastic, a shrub of great ecological value, in protected areas of Catalan forests. They operated mainly in the province of Tarragona and transported the merchandise in vans to a warehouse for clandestine shipment to the Netherlands. This was the modus operandi of a criminal organization with international connections dedicated to plundering mastic trees in Catalonia and laundering the millions of euros in profits they obtained from this trade. The Civil Guard has arrested ten people who, between July 2020 and December 2023, harvested at least 991 tons of mastic trees and laundered around 32 million euros.

Between twenty and thirty cars are stolen each week, and the same number of robberies occur daily in the Lleida region, "some very violent." Ninety percent of those arrested for these crimes are of North African origin. These are some of the figures published on Tuesday by the Catalan Alliance of the Lands of Lleida on social media. Silvia Orriols' party put numbers to the crimes committed in this area and, once again, targeted the Muslim community in its offensive against people from Morocco. The Lleida Municipal Police (Guardia Urbana) took less than an hour to deny these figures, which the far-right party claimed had been provided to them by sources within the force itself. "We categorically deny the data you are disseminating and that it is official information from the Lleida Municipal Police. What you are stating is not true in any case. We ask that you correct yourself and stop spreading falsehoods. Thank you," the Lleida local police responded from their official account.

The Mossos d'Esquadra have arrested a 57-year-old caregiver in La Seu d'Urgell for allegedly stole 115,000 euros from an elderly couple The couple, who were caring for them, had been alerted that their bank account had been emptied with unauthorized transactions. Following the investigation, the police arrested the suspect, accused of fraud, identity theft, breach of trust, and theft after she withdrew cash. In the summer, the couple—an 89-year-old woman and a 92-year-old man, both dependent on care—had hired the worker to perform domestic chores and care for them. The woman filed the complaint after going to the bank with a companion and realizing that ten cash withdrawals totaling €4,800 and a bank transfer of €50,200 had been made from her account without her knowledge. They also noticed that the transfer entry in the passbook had been altered, as the first two digits had been erased to make it appear to be only €200.

Olive oil, perfumes, headphones, light bulbs, and underwear are the most frequently stolen items in Spanish stores, according to a study by the retail consultancy NIQ for the anti-theft device manufacturer Checkpoint Systems and Aecoc, the national association of large companies in the distribution sector. In total, stores in Spain lose €2.917 billion annually to so-called shrinkage, which includes shoplifting, supplier fraud, and administrative errors. This figure represents approximately 1.1% of the sector's revenue, according to the report. On average, each theft involves items valued at €195.58, although 83% of thefts involve products worth less than €150. 65% of thefts are committed by occasional customers, while 35% are coordinated actions by organized gangs for profit. These gangs typically steal high-value products for resale and "pose a major problem for the security of establishments," the study adds.

New offensive by the Mossos d'Esquadra against the resale of stolen cell phones. According to ARA, early this morning the Catalan police force launched an operation in Mataró against two apartments where stolen phones were allegedly stored and distributed. The thefts mainly occurred in Barcelona, and the owners of these apartments then purchased the stolen devices to resell them in other countries. According to police sources, three arrests have been made, and more than 600 cell phones and €58,000 in cash have been recovered.

A locksmith explains that on more than one occasion he has installed locks, doors, and other security mechanisms in the homes of Barça players. And they always have one obsession: installing the most secure systems. Obviously, he's talking about large mansions and large investments to protect, but he emphasizes that they typically spend between 3 and 5% of the home's budget on security systems. That is, of every million euros, 50,000 are allocated to protecting their property. According to the locksmith himself, this differs greatly from the investment made by people with more average salaries. For every euro spent on a house or apartment, the percentage allocated to security decreases exponentially.

Marta woke up when she heard a noise. It wasn't far away, it was coming from nearby. It was so close it was coming from her nightstand. It was metallic, as if someone were removing jewelry. When she opened her eyes, she saw a silhouette very similar to that of her grandson. It wasn't surprising that he was there, since he lived with them, although that night, a priori, he wasn't supposed to be. She spoke to him. The silhouette responded, but intelligibly, and left the room. Marta thought her grandson wasn't well, and followed him. Her son also saw the silhouette, and thought the same. However, the silhouette vanished, and with it, the jewelry disappeared. It was a burglar who had entered through the window.

The call is due to a router problem, as the internet isn't working properly. Once the necessary arrangements have been made, the operator says one last thing before hanging up: he asks the customer if they have a home alarm, and hints that they have an offer that's hard to refuse. Another person goes to a bank to set up a direct deposit for their payroll. The conversation turns, again, to an alarm: they also have an offer that significantly reduces the price. These are two anecdotal situations, but they demonstrate how burglar alarms are present in our daily lives. They are offered by telephone companies and banks, and in some cases, they are required to sign a mortgage.

The story begins in a Lisbon shopping mall, or on the streets of Milan. The next episode takes place in an apartment in Barcelona's Raval district, and the finale is filmed in North Africa or China. The Mossos d'Esquadra has become a hub of mobile resale and these two stories prove it: last week, Catalan police arrested 20 people who were buying stolen cell phones in the Raval district.. They recovered more than a thousand phones. One belonged to the Portuguese man at the shopping center, another to the pedestrian in Milan, but there was also one belonging to a shopper at a supermarket in Gandía, a festival-goer in Torrejón de Ardoz, and a visitor to the April Fair in Seville.

In the early hours of Wednesday, February 19, 2025, two people lost their lives after falling into a ravine in a wooded area on the outskirts of Cabrera d'Anoia.

It's common in Hollywood action movies for police chases to end in public spaces like large squares, airports, or stations, with dozens of people making it difficult to catch the criminal. The next scene usually moves to a control center filled with huge screens, where you can see all the security cameras and the officers trying to find the fugitive's face in the crush of people. They approach, recede, rotate, change, and, in the most optimistic films, there's facial recognition. Cinema isn't so far from reality, and one July afternoon at El Prat Airport, two Mossos d'Esquadra officers look at six screens. Each one displays a mosaic of between six and nine cameras. They zoom in and observe a face. They turn right and notice a boarding queue. They zoom out and see a wide shot of Terminal T1. What exactly are they looking for?

"Juanito, what's going on at the airport?" Joan Alfred Vives, deputy inspector of the Mossos d'Esquadra and head of the Regional Airport Security Area, received a call one Sunday in September. On the other end of the phone was the director of the police, Josep Lluís Trapero. That day, the ARA had published a report about the crime situation at the airport, where property crimes, especially theft, had increased tenfold in a decade. The news spread quickly within the Ministry of the Interior, and its leaders were asking the same question that Trapero would ask minutes later to the airport's top police official: "What's going on at El Prat?"

Two years ago, in April 2023, the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) stopped a van during a routine checkpoint as part of the fight against repeated offending in the Horta-Guinardó district of Barcelona. Inside the vehicle were several objects, some of them valuable, and the driver, hesitant, couldn't pinpoint their origin. This simple coincidence led the police to one of the most active groups involved in receiving stolen goods (which they then resell). According to police sources, the receiving operation is a key figure in understanding multi-recidivismIf thieves don't have anyone to give them the stolen items, they'll be unlikely to continue stealing. That's why law enforcement is focusing its efforts, although, as is often the case in the world of repeated offenders, arresting them isn't always enough to stop them from committing crimes.

The situation at El Prat airport at the end of last year was unsustainable. During the month of September alone, almost a thousand crimes against property were recorded, and the vast majority (around 900) were thefts from passengers. We are talking about more than one theft every hour. But the balance of recent years was also very negative: as the ARA advanced, in a decade, thefts in the infrastructure had multiplied by ten. In September 2024 alone, twice as many were recorded as in the whole of 2013, and this frenetic pace of crime caused the Mossos to place the airport as one of their priorities. In recent months, a reinforcement of personnel has been implemented, also advanced by this newspaper And now, this action is beginning to be reflected in the data.

Viruses permitting, after two years of the pandemic, this summer will again resemble 2019, the last before covid struck. Since Easter, the city has been full of tourists and even more are expected to come. Their increased presence is linked to a growth in crime, often with foreign visitors as recurring victims. Thefts and robberies, in fact, are already above 2020 numbers – when crimes bottomed out – and last year, but still below 2019, when they reached an all-time high and there was talk of a "security crisis" in the city. With this data, the Guardia Urbana and also the Mossos are preparing for a summer that will bring back some old problems, although not all: the presence of street sellers in Barcelona is at a minimum, according to data from the City Council.