The 'post-Trapero' Mossos: proximity, decentralized organized crime and youth gangs

BarcelonaContinuist, but with changes. That would be the summary of how the new phase begins for the Mossos d'Esquadra following the resignation of the police director, Josep Lluís Trapero, and the retirement of the chief commissioner, Miquel Esquius. Continuist because the minister will continue to be Núria Parlon, because she herself has said that she will be, and because from the Interior Department and from the Mossos they define the change of Esquius for commissioner Sílvia Catà as a "natural, organic" relief, the first one to be like this in a decade. However, there will be changes that have already been announced by the minister, commissioner Catà and the new director, Ferran López, in an appearance this Wednesday at the Interior commission of the Parliament.

One of the bets of the new phase for the corps is to boost proximity and the territory with the arrival of the new classes of agents, the political leaders have explained. In fact, López has already announced what one of the tasks will be that he will entrust to Major Trapero now that he has returned to the corps as head of the Inspection and Evaluation Commissariat, a position he held before being director: an audit to know what the Mossos are doing in the field of proximity. According to Catà, police data allow deciding where resources should be allocated, but "they don't fix everything," because they do not always coincide with the population's perception of insecurity. In fact, she has remarked that crime data are falling in all police regions, in one way or another, but at the same time in certain areas the citizenry continues to feel insecure. For this reason, she has defended a "proactive" proximity activity and more direct interaction with citizens.

In this sense, Commissioner Catà has explained that some plans like Kanpai or Daga –the first, to deal with multirecidivism, and the second, with bladed weapons– will remain active. "We have a hell of a problem with bladed weapons," Parlon has stated. But there will also be new plans. One will be a proximity plan, another to improve care for victims of vulnerable groups and a third against organized crime. Specifically, Catà wants there to be organized crime specialists in every police region. Currently, they are centralized at the Mossos headquarters in Sabadell.

Catà's fourth plan is against youth gangs, an initiative on which, as this newspaper explained, the force has been working for months. Changes of names in the police structure of the Mossos are also foreseen and Parlon herself has said that in the coming days "some adjustments" will have to be made with the headquarters commanders. López has also announced that the Mossos d'Esquadra will soon have a presence at Sepblac, the state body for the prevention of money laundering, "on equal terms" with the National Police and the Civil Guard.

"This is a crisis"

Although the leadership of the Interior Department has wanted to speak of the replacements as organic changes, the opposition has denied it: "Peaceful changes will be for you. This is a crisis," stated Josep Rius (Junts). Above all, he referred to the resignation of Trapero and that of the Secretary General of the Interior, Tomàs Carrión. Regarding the latter, Parlon stated that it had already been agreed from the beginning that after two years at the ministry he would leave to focus on other professional fields. Sources consulted by ARA point out that the relationship between him and the minister had become complicated over the months.

In the case of Trapero's resignation, Parlon has limited herself again to pointing out that the major decided that he "did not want to continue doing political tasks" and that it was a "premeditated," personal, and "irrevocable" decision. "It seems I have to keep track of the times I have disagreed with Trapero; sometimes yes, sometimes no. But not in anything that has marked the lines of work, which have been correct during this period," stated Parlon, who defended the work done by the major.

Several sources consulted by ARA point out that the relationship between Parlon and Trapero also wore down over the months, with the case of the infiltration of two agents into a teachers' assembly and the election of Catà as Chief Commissioner – which was not Trapero's preferred option – as triggers for the resignation. During the parliamentary commission to account for the changes that have been made, the parliamentary groups began with elegant wishes of luck and success for the new positions, but quickly the criticisms arrived. In fact, Junts, ERC, Comuns, and the CUP have questioned that the new director is, like Trapero, a commander of the Mossos. The Popular Party members have warned that "the security situation in Catalonia is not good" and from Vox they have lamented the "permanent reorganizations" within the department "instead of dealing with insecurity".