The Badalona shooting with an injured minor points to a drug conflict between clans

BarcelonaA drug conflict between two familiar clans who know each other and compete for territorial control in Badalona. This is the main police hypothesis about the shooting that took place this Sunday afternoon in the Sant Roc neighborhood of the Catalan city in which a 10-year-old minor was injured in the arm by a ricochet bullet. The girl, who was admitted to the hospital and is out of danger, would be part of one of the feuding families.

For now, the Mossos' investigation is very advanced and arrests are not ruled out in the coming hours. "We are well on our way," stated Superintendent Antoni Sànchez, head of the Mossos of the Metropolitan North Region, in statements to Catalunya Ràdio. At the time of the events, the girl was in the street accompanied by her relatives. At least eight bullets were fired in the shooting, and a fragment of one of these bullets, after ricocheting, grazed the minor's arm.

Superintendent Sànchez explained that these are "very specific conflicts between certain groups," and refused to speak of "indiscriminate violence." For now, everything indicates that the feuding clans would be involved in marijuana trafficking and that the shots would be of an intimidating nature, a frequent dynamic between these clans from Badalona and also from Sant Adrià del Besòs. Immediately after the shooting, the Mossos reinforced their police presence in the neighborhood to prevent the conflict from reigniting, with public order agents still deployed in the area.

"Serious security problems"

Who has also spoken about the events is the mayor of Badalona, Xavier García Albiol, who has explained that on the street where the shooting took place, there live "very problematic" families linked to drug trafficking. In statements to Catalunya Ràdio, the mayor said that security in the city is improving, but that there are areas in Sant Roc, and in Badalona, where there are still "serious security problems", and where neighbors are "afraid". Beyond the specific case, Albiol has assured that with the current legal framework it is "impossible" to combat organized crime and recidivism.

Albiol has criticized these normative "limitations" and has called for the reform of the Penal Code and the criminal procedure law, to be able to combat these problems. He stated that, if it is not done, it is because it is not the priority of the central government. Among these limitations, he has assured that there is the one of not being able to enter a dwelling that is known to be occupied and with marijuana plantations. He also pointed out that 95% of daily arrests in the city are people with criminal or police records. "This cannot be", he declared.

New shooting in Tordera

This Sunday, another shooting was registered in the same police region, in this case in Tordera, in Maresme, with one person injured. And it would also be linked to a drug conflict: according to sources consulted by ARA, everything indicates that it would be a narco-assault, when one criminal group tries to steal drugs from another criminal group.

The Mossos received a call around 4:30 AM this Sunday about a vehicle fleeing at high speed in Tordera. Mossos officers, along with municipal agents, began tracking the vehicle, which they eventually stopped on the C-66 in Celrà (Gironès). Inside, they found two occupants, one of them injured by a firearm, who was taken to the hospital. Both were arrested and the police link them to a narco-assault that allegedly occurred earlier in an indoor marijuana plantation in Tordera. However, no one was at the plantation.