The other night, 13 men were arrested in the Raval district of Barcelona and in Valencia on suspicion of fraud. Apparently, they were running a criminal gang that forged passports and Spanish ID cards.
But on the Catalan news yesterday morning, they were already being described as ‘jihadists’ and ‘suspected terrorists’. Channel 4 news in the UK this evening picked up the story and added drug trafficking to the rap sheet (this appears to be a similar combination as that reported in Público)
Now, I’m finding it difficult to track down the warrant that was issued for these men’s arrests. If anyone could help me out with this, I’d be very grateful.
Interesting to note that some comments in El País theorise that the story was used to ‘bury’ the large increase in unemployment in Spain, a story that broke the same morning.
A copper I know says that one part of the force wants to avoid the disgraceful behaviour of the authorities during the whole-lot-of-razzia-about-nothing a couple of years ago while another part likes to look hard by stereotyping brown people as terrorists. I don’t think the details of arrest warrants are considered in detail – the authorities arrest the guys and then justify their actions via leaks.
What else would you expect from a police state?
I think it is awful thing really! I hope something will change soon