The creation of a specific sub-directorate within the General Directorate of Police to defend the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) has opened a Pandora's box for the Catalan government. The decision was implemented through an internal restructuring decree and stems from the desire of the Director of Police, Major Josep Lluís Trapero, to return the legal representation, defense, and advice of the Mossos to the purview of the Ministry of the Interior. This is a long-standing conflict: in 2021, the legal representation of the police was transferred to the Department of the Presidency because the government of Pere Aragonès considered some charges against pro-independence demonstrators to be too serious. Now, the lawyers will return to the Ministry of the Interior, but the measure has met with opposition from the Catalan Government's Bar Association, the Forum of Lawyers, which has challenged it before the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) and is demanding its immediate suspension. as it progressed The World

Sub-inspectors are the quintessential mid-level officers in the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police force). Just above sergeants and below inspectors, there are 414 officers with this rank, responsible for supervising units, groups, and subgroups. In other words, they often act as a liaison between the rank-and-file officers—the first line of defense when investigating or patrolling the streets—and the executive or upper echelon, comprised of the force's chiefs and coordinators. "We translate strategic decisions into operational work," sources within this rank explain, adding that their responsibilities are very similar to those of inspectors, especially when on duty. However, sub-inspectors have been fighting for months: they believe their duties are not commensurate with their salaries.

Organized crime related to marijuana is expanding in Catalonia, and police resources alone are insufficient to address the magnitude of this "serious security problem," warned the Director General of the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police), Josep Lluís Trapero, on Friday. In 2024, there were 115 violent incidents related to marijuana trafficking—including two homicides—and firearms were used in 30% of these incidents. At the same time, the illicit presence of firearms on the streets has been increasing. Last year, police operations resulted in the dismantling of more than 400 plantations, the seizure of half a million plants, and 2,000 arrests nationwide. However, only 10% of those arrested were remanded in custody.

Two Japanese tourists board a train on Barcelona's L1 metro line. Upon arriving at Arc de Triomf station, they notice someone rummaging through their bags. It's a young man wearing a Manchester United shirt who, realizing he's been caught, abandons the theft and flees. Two security guards try to stop him, but he assaults one and escapes along the train tracks. He runs to the next station, Marina, where he re-enters the platform, covered in black dust, and flees again. He's a "two-time offender," which in police jargon means he has two prior convictions, and two plainclothes officers from the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) eventually arrest him, placing him against the wall and handcuffing him, while a third security guard, trembling, explains that he had to use pepper spray to subdue him.

On May 12th of last year, during the electoral debate, the PSC candidate, Salvador Illa, had an ace up his sleeve: he announced that, if he were sworn in as president, the Minister of the Interior would be Núria Parlon, then mayor of Santa Coloma de Gramanet, and that the director of the police would be the head of the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police), Josep Lluís. The predictions ultimately proved true, and Parlon was appointed head of the department, and Trapero assumed the political leadership of the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police). This move, which initially generated surprise, was not the only one: with Parlon's arrival at the Interior Ministry, five senior officials also arrived who, before taking on their new positions, were police officers.

"They are two distinct concepts." With these words, the Director General of the Police, Josep Lluís Trapero, began to answer a delicate question: is there a relationship between immigration and crime? Trapero said that there are currently 8,500 inmates in Catalonia, and that 52 percent are of foreign origin, while newcomers represent 18 percent of the Catalan population. However, he pointed out that these data also indicate that only 0.3 percent of the immigrant population is in prison. "One person out of every 333. The debate on immigration affects all 333; the debate on crime, one," he pointed out.

"I felt like I was in prison; I could smell the prison from the terrace of my house." With these words, the chief of the Mossos d'Esquadra and current director of the Catalan police, Josep Lluís Trapero, recalled his most "complicated" days. They date back to the years following the October 1st referendum, when Trapero, who stepped down as chief of the Mossos d'Esquadra in 1955, was indicted for sedition and ended up being tried in the National Court. facing sentences of 10 years in prisonIn that process, Trapero "breathed the prison breath."

Former Catalan police chief constable Josep Lluís Trapero has returned to court a year and a half after being acquitted by Spain's High Court. This time he has done it to testify as a witness in the trial of an alleged plot of police corruption and drug trafficking, known as the 'Macedonia' case, which had him in the spotlight for nearly a decade. Trapero was never investigated in the case, but for eight years the judge suspected some of his subordinates, members of the Catalan police's anti-corruption unit, over their relationship with an informant, Manuel Gutiérrez Carbajo, whom the prosecution considers the leader of a drug gang. The major agreed with the defence, which claims former superintendent José Manuel Villarejo took advantage of the Macedonia case to discredit Trapero and the Catalan police force.

Never before has a change in the command of the Catalan police force, known as the Mossos d'Esquadra, been surrounded by so much controversy. The dismissal of Chief Constable Josep Lluís Trapero, the highest ranked office in the force, has been surrounded by accusations of a political purge that the Catalan government denies and the opposition wants to be investigated by a parliamentary commission. The consequences of this huge shift are not over.

The data from the Catalan local forces are unequivocal: the pandemic, and above all the months of lockdowns and curfew, has left a trace of distrust and loss of respect for authority that has resulted in a considerable increase in violent attacks against uniformed agents. With respect to 2019 (the last normal year), crimes against authority and disobedience have more than doubled. This violence, moreover, does not occur in contexts of political vindication such as the protests against the sentencing of the Independence bid leaders, but oftentimes occurs in a festive atmosphere such as street parties.

A wake-up call from the head of the Mossos d'Esquadra, Major Josep Lluís Trapero, on the attacks received by agents. Trapero has warned that he is "concerned" about the fact that in some public debates whomever throws stones at the police is labelled as an activist. According to the major, respect for police authority is "a whole" in a democratic country: "Those who endorse the lack of respect forget that the authority is delegated by the judicial and governmental authority". For Trapero, lack of respect and authority "affects the social balance". "We ask only for respect. We are not looking for submissive attitudes or fears of the police that have already been overcome", he said at the national event of the Dia de les Esquadres, which was held at midday this afternoon in Barcelona.