The man arrested as the instigator of the Torre Pacheco riots is a private bodyguard who lived in Barcelona.

BarcelonaThe Civil Guard arrested on Monday in Mataró director of the supremacist and xenophobic group Deport Them Now for his alleged role as instigator of the riots and racist "hunts" that have taken place in recent days in the Murcia town of Torre Pacheco. According to sources from the Ministry of the Interior who spoke to Efe, the arrested man is a 28-year-old man who lived in Barcelona and who last January obtained authorization to work as a private bodyguard.

CLF has no criminal record, and in 2021 he passed the tests to become a security guard, although he is not registered with any company in the sector. In 2023, the detainee—who is now being investigated by the Civil Guard for his alleged involvement in hate speech—tried to enter the Mas d'Enric penitentiary center in Tarragona as a labor administrative technician, but was not deemed suitable in the personal interview. The man will appear before a court in Mataró on Thursday.

For the extremism experts consulted by ARA, Deport Them Now (DTN) is just another group within the constellation of far-right activism that is very well organized online but has little participation on the streets. However, before the riots in Murcia, this movement had already appealed to Catalonia and had been seen at some protests organized by Vox in Mataró and Terrassa, where they stood out for their militarized aesthetic, which was completely out of place with the rest of the attendees, mostly local residents.

This Wednesday, the Mataró Socialist Workers' Party (PSC) publicly denounced the fact that Vox shares a "relationship and strategy" with this supremacist movement, as evidenced by the fact that both participated in a xenophobic demonstration in the municipality. In a statement, the first secretary of the Socialists in the capital of Maresme, Núria Padilla, emphasized that there was a demonstration organized by DTN in which xenophobic and racist slogans were chanted and that Vox MP Mónica Lora participated. "It's obvious that there is a relationship and a joint strategy between them," she noted.

For her part, the Minister of the Interior, Núria Parlon, argued that the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) are "orienting their priorities" to combat "violent extremism linked to racism and xenophobia." In response to a question from the Commons in the Parliament, he said that disturbances like the one in Murcia are "totally intolerable." However, he admitted that the investigations to find the alleged perpetrators "require time" and "more resources."

Vox in Murcia reaffirms its position.

After a night without incidents, but still with a heavy police presence due to calls from extremist groups circulating online, this Wednesday the mayor of Torre Pacheco, Pedro Ángel Roca, met with the imams of the Cartagena region to analyze the situation of the migrant population in the municipality and strengthen the good relations of recent days.

The director of the Balsicas mosque, Mohamed Ghazli, explained in statements to Efe that during the meeting, measures were agreed upon to avoid any future confrontations. "Our children were raised in this town; we are very united as migrants, as Spaniards, and we all stand together," he said. He stated that the administration and the Muslim population will work together to restore "tranquility and peace."

Shortly before the meeting, however, the president of Vox in Murcia, José Ángel Antelo, expressed his concern about the increase in insecurity in the region, but reiterated his position on immigration, recalling that Vox advocates a policy of expulsion for those who enter the country. "Those who come illegally should leave. Those who come to commit crimes should leave," Antelo stated. He then added that those immigrants who "contribute positively and adapt to the culture and values of Spanish society can stay."

The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, will chair an extraordinary meeting of the Monitoring Committee of the Action Plan to Combat Hate Crimes this Thursday following the riots in the Murcia town of Torre Pacheco, which have so far resulted in thirteen deaths. According to the ministry, the meeting will discuss the latest developments related to the actions of violent and xenophobic groups against ethnic, racial, and cultural minorities in Torre Pacheco.