A thousand officers block train and bus stations across the country to hunt down repeat offenders.

Tarragona"We thought they were filming a movie," said Carlota Escudero this Friday afternoon when she saw about forty of Mossos d'Esquadra Entering the Tarragona bus station surrounded by journalists with cameras. The officers arrived at the station in Plaza Imperial Tarragona a little after 5 p.m. They discreetly parked four vehicles at the main entrance. Plainclothes officers were stationed at the other entrances. When everyone was in place, the uniformed officers calmly began entering the station and conducted a raid on identification cards. A few minutes later, they had found one of the profiles they were looking for: a man with a warrant. He was arrested and headed to the police station. According to initial reports, they also found a couple of people carrying small amounts of drugs.

This scene The incident that Carlota was witnessing live was also taking place, at that very moment, at the Tarragona train station and also at the stations in Reus, El Vendrell, Lleida, Girona, and Manresa. The massive police operation, which was already carried out in Barcelona at the beginning of April and is known as the Kanpai plan, has involved more than a thousand officers, who have been deployed to key points across the country from three o'clock in the afternoon on Friday until dawn. They have been identifying and, where appropriate, arresting. And the main objective: repeat offenders. "We know that there are people who use this type of transport to travel between cities and commit thefts," explained Francesc Morales, the Mossos d'Esquadra sub-inspector in charge of the operation in Camp de Tarragona.

This type of massive raid is the Catalan police's new strategy to catch repeat offenders. Operation Kanpai began simultaneously in different cities at 3:00 p.m. on Friday. A total of 1,000 officers from different police forces were mobilized. The operation resulted in 67 arrests, 497 police records, and 18 criminal investigations in different parts of the country. Officers also filed 193 administrative complaints of various kinds and had to intervene in 33 restaurants and nightlife venues.

In Camp de Tarragona alone, nearly 300 Mossos d'Esquadra officers were deployed, with the collaboration of other officers from the Tarragona Urban Guard, the Reus Urban Guard, the El Vendrell Local Police, the Salou Local Police, the National Police, and the Guàrdia. In this part of the country, the plan began on the AP-7, where officers were deployed and carried out various checkpoints. In just over an hour, they identified 90 vehicles and 170 people, arresting one person with falsified documentation and another carrying 1,500 marijuana buds in the vehicle. At the end of the operation, 30 people with 250 police records were arrested. In addition, 16 traffic tickets were issued, 47 court orders were issued, and an inspection report was opened at a Reus establishment for several violations.

Searches

While Carlota waited for the bus that was supposed to take her to Roda de Berà, the Mossos d'Esquadra officers kept identifying people at the station. Some were simply asked for their ID, while others were forced against a wall and searched. "I don't like this. They're giving them a hard time and stopping a lot of black people; it seems a bit racist to me," complained Enriquet, a man waiting for a bus to Morell. "Well, I think it's fine. They're doing their job, and that's not racism," responded another traveler, who emphasized that she was of Moroccan origin. A few meters away, Àngels Puig explained how pleased she was to see so many officers identifying people: "I think it's fine, there are a lot of pickpockets here... But one Mossos d'Esquadra looked at me in such a way that I thought they were stopping me," she said.

This impressive deployment is the Mossos d'Esquadra's strategy to combat recidivism. In addition to the arrests that will occur, officers believe that these types of operations serve to put pressure on repeat offenders and send the message that stealing cannot be done with impunity. According to the Mossos d'Esquadra, they also serve to demonstrate to the public that the police are doing their job.

In Girona, Operation Kanpai began in the morning and arrived just before a weekend expected to be crowded for the Temps de Flors festival. In fact, the Mossos d'Esquadra inspector in Girona, Carles Ribas, stated in statements to ACN that the objective is also to convey a sense of security. The number of criminals arriving (especially by train) to the city "is multiplying," police sources say.

Ribas admitted that the district has a "clear problem with multiple repeat offenders" and explained that they are working daily in areas of some neighborhoods where they have identified them. In total, 216 people with a total of 721 criminal records have been identified, and three arrests have been made. Among those with criminal records, there are two under investigation for public health-related offenses, 13 citations linked to the immigration law, and two complaints from the Civil Guard for tax matters.

As for Lleida, during the first hours of the operation, about forty officers arrested at least two people this Friday and identified more than fifty others in the Eix Comercial district and in some bars in the city considered problematic. In total, three arrests have been made, involving people with 13 criminal records. And in the Metropolitan North Police Region, there have been 29 arrests in total: 18 in Barcelona, ​​​​10 in Badalona, ​​​​and one in Santa Coloma de Gramenet.