Police raid by 300 officers against the Trinitarios gang: drugs, violent assaults and firearms
During the operation, 15 people were arrested, including a man convicted of drawing an X with a knife on a young man's back.
BarcelonaThe Holy Trinity in the Dominican Republic isn't always what Christianity defines: God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. On this Caribbean island, it's often used to refer to the three main revolutionaries of the 19th-century War of Independence: Duarte, Sánchez, and Mella, who achieved independence from Haiti—although the island had previously been a Spanish colony. One hundred years later, in Rikers Island prison in New York, a group of Dominican inmates banded together to stand strong against attacks from other prisoners. The motto they chose was "God, Fatherland, and Liberty," precisely the motto of their country. And, to choose their name, they revived the figures of Duarte, Sánchez, and Mella: they became known as the Trinitarios.
Over the years, its members were released from prison and became a criminal group, a dangerous and feared Latino gang, based in the United States but with increasingly established branches in several countries, including Catalonia. Green is one of their most prominent colors, and their emblem features two crossed machetes. Early Tuesday morning, while it was still dark, up to 300 officers from the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan Police) and the National Police took to the streets in various parts of the country to dismantle a faction of the Trinitarios gang that was particularly active in Hospitalet de Llobregat. Twenty raids were carried out, some in Hospitalet, but others in Barcelona, Esplugues, Sant Boi, Cubelles, and Salou. In total, the police arrested 15 people and found firearms, bladed weapons, and drugs in the raided apartments. According to information obtained by ARA, Tuesday's operation also extended to prisons. Police searched several cells in three Catalan penitentiaries where members of this gang are held. They confiscated mobile phones for analysis. Three inmates from Brians 1 prison have also left the facility to accompany the police to their homes to witness a search. Most are inmates who were being held in pretrial detention. In fact, one of those involved was in prison until the end of October for a burglary and assault. He had been free for a few weeks, according to sources consulted by this newspaper, and has now been arrested again. He is considered one of the gang's leaders and is well-known to the police.
Known as PukitaA decade ago, he was convicted along with other Trinitarians. to carve a large X into the back of a gang member who wanted to leave the organization.Now, police are investigating whether he had returned to a leadership position within that faction. Furthermore, investigators have arrested another man accused of being the gang's leader. They are also trying to determine if he had contact with Trinitarios gangs beyond the Spanish factions.
Criminal Modus
According to police sources, the organization dismantled this Tuesday was a group that followed the Trinitarian aesthetic and values, and was primarily involved in violent assaults and drug trafficking. Specifically, they engaged in robberies with violence and the retail sale of cocaine. Police are also investigating whether members of the gang are behind some shootings that have occurred in recent months, concentrated in Hospitalet de Llobregat. However, police sources specify that their modus operandi is closer to that of a criminal group seeking to profit from robberies and drugs than to that of a Latin gang, which is often linked to clashes with other gangs for territorial control. The operation involved more than 300 officers from both police forces, including the GEI (Special Intervention Group), Brimo (Mobile Brigade), ARRO (Rapid Response Unit), the canine unit, the drone unit, the forensic unit, the regional command center, the public safety unit, and investigative personnel. The case is under seal and comes after an investigation that lasted almost eight months.
This is not the first time the police have tried to neutralize this criminal gang in Catalonia. A year ago, the National Police and the Civil Guard arrested 16 members of the Trinitarios gang for fraud and money laundering. Six months earlier, they also arrested five members of the same gang for fraud. These are the latest indications of their presence, but there is much more evidence of their activities, as they began establishing themselves in Spain at the beginning of the century.
