Mossos Investigate Who Incited the Disturbances in Barcelona

The Mossos d’Esquadra are searching for the promoters of the call that led to looting and destruction in central Barcelona. There are 128 detainees, 72 of whom are minors.

A call launched on TikTok gathered groups of young people, many of them minors, in Plaza de Catalunya starting at 5:00 PM. The aim was to cause damage and loot shops, rather than to advocate for anything. Later, the action moved to private groups on Telegram and WhatsApp, where meeting points were specified.

The Mossos d’Esquadra suspect that the call did not arise spontaneously, nor from social discontent or solidarity with France. Investigative sources admit that tracing the origin of the call will be a complicated task. The anonymous platform Blocus spread it to replicate the mobilisations occurring in France for the dignity of schools.

“We are working on social media to find out who is behind this call and what the profile of the organisers and participants is,” said the chief commissioner of the Mossos d’Esquadra, Sílvia Catà, in a radio interview.

The president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, assured during a PSC rally in Tarragona that they will go to the end to identify the organisers of the vandalistic acts. His message was direct.

“We will know who they are.”

The incidents began around 6:00 PM. Groups of between five and twenty people, many with their faces covered, broke shop windows of electronics, clothing, footwear, and optical stores. They moved through different areas of the centre without a fixed route, damaging urban furniture.

According to the report from the Firefighters, they had to extinguish 33 fires in containers, terrace awnings, motorcycles, and bicycles. At least 14 establishments were damaged or looted. The Mossos deployed around 300 agents from the Mobile Brigade and plainclothes officers, with support from the Urban Guard.

The Mossos arrested 128 people during the night on Saturday, of whom 72 were minors. From 5:00 PM the following day, they began to be brought before the juvenile judge, who could impose internment measures. The Prosecutor's Office is considering requesting restraining orders from gatherings to prevent the arrested individuals from participating in new disturbances.

Commissioner Sílvia Catà distinguishes this episode from a conventional protest. For her, it is a matter of criminal acts promoted and coordinated via social media.

“It was not a protest, but criminal acts.”

Social media expert Marcelino Madrigal warned on Friday that young people were being recruited in various Catalan schools. He claims that some influencers with many followers echoed the call solely to obtain luxury products for free, citing stores like PC Componentes, Nike, and Decathlon as targets.

The Minister of Interior, Núria Parlon, spoke of a possible mirror effect of the European mobilisations, although she insisted that nothing that occurred responded to a specific demand. For the residents of Barcelona, the immediate effect was the closure of shops in the centre during the afternoon.

The group Blocus BCN remained active on Telegram and encouraged a return to the streets next Saturday, October 31, in Plaza de Catalunya, Gran Via, and the Splau shopping centre in Cornellà de Llobregat. The instructions were explicit: “Everyone in black and with hoods.”