An afternoon hunting for repeat offenders in downtown Barcelona

BarcelonaOften, nothing is what it seems. When Mossos d'Esquadra officers see three people entering stores and trying to sell first a phone and then some jewelry, they follow them. The phone is an iPhone Pro Max 16, but they sell it for much less, around 300 euros. The jewelry claims to be gold, but the retailers want to sell it for 25 euros. When they finally arrest them, they see one of them with two "red" colors. This color is played several times over the radio: it's the internal code for someone with an outstanding arrest warrant. Nothing is what it seems because the sellers turn out to be fugitives, the iPhone is fake—the officers went to the Apple store to corroborate this—and the gold wasn't gold—they also went to a specialized store to verify this.

"We can't let a person who commits a crime live." This is the slogan these officers heard before leaving the police station, in the words of Mossos d'Esquadra superintendent Rafa Tello. It all starts in Sant Andreu, around two in the afternoon, with a room full of police officers. There are Mossos d'Esquadra, Urban Guard, port police, National Police, and even metro workers. Most are in uniform, but others wear camouflage to look like tourists. One wears a Barça shirt that hurts the eyes because it's fake, and another opts for a nicer one, styled like a tourist. vintage, from the Dream Team era. "Today we're going after the stolen goods," Tello explains to those present. That is, they go after the stores that buy stolen goods on the street. This is the eighth Kanpai device made. the plan designed to end multiple recidivism"Let people see us," Tello insists.

Suddenly, almost out of nowhere, a thousand police officers appear on the streets: in Barcelona, ​​in L'Hospitalet, in the airport, in Esplugues... It's a kind of warning to criminals, that they are there, and even more so at the gates of La Mercè. They are there, but the young man sitting next to a tourist and starting to move his hand to try to take her camera in Plaça del Àngel, in Ciutat Vella, doesn't see them. Just as he was about to take him away, plainclothes officers appear and arrest him. Another man trying to sell a cell phone in the Sant Martí district doesn't see them either: the officers show their badge and confirm that the phone had been stolen. There hasn't been such luck, however, with the locals.

This Friday afternoon, the police raided several businesses in Barcelona, ​​and the ARA was able to accompany the device. In Sant Antoni, they conducted an administrative check on a jewelry store that they suspect has been buying stolen goods for some time. But all the paperwork was in order. However, suspicions remain: most of the clients who sold the jewelry were people with criminal records. Nothing has come of a raid on a phone store near the Mine, where they also suspect stolen phones end up.

This is, in fact, a second phase of Operation Kanpai. Officers continue to identify potential suspects on the street, which often prompts comments from those identified and their acquaintances, warning that they never do anything, yet they always get stopped. However, the second phase involves targeting the establishments that receive these stolen items. This summer the Mossos have already dedicated a lot of effort and recovered hundreds of stolen cell phones. Now Kanpai is also focusing on that area. This Friday afternoon, at least a dozen people were arrested, although their operation will continue throughout the night.