The Mossos d’Esquadra have arrested two minors, aged 14 and 17, in connection with the Blocus-related looting and disturbances reported in Barcelona on October 24. Police allege that the girls administered several messaging groups used to plan and promote the call to loot shops and cause unrest.
According to the Catalan police, the groups were created to help coordinate participants. Access was promoted through posters shared on TikTok and a QR code leading to WhatsApp channels.
The arrests form part of a joint investigation by the Mossos and the Policía Nacional, coordinated with the Barcelona Public Prosecutor’s Office’s juvenile section. Police attribute an active role to both teenagers in managing and expanding the group network. They live in different counties, Maresme and Bages, located several dozen kilometres apart.
The arrests follow a wider operation focused on the digital trail left by the calls for the disturbances. Between Friday and Sunday, ten people were arrested across Spain as alleged Blocus coordinators: three in Valencia, three in Catalonia, two in Tenerife, one in Andalusia and one in the Basque Country.
The alleged founder and promoter of the movement was arrested on Friday in Picanya, Valencia, by the Guardia Civil. A judge ordered his provisional detention without bail. Two other young men, aged 18 and 21, arrested in Barcelona as alleged coordinators of the disturbances, also remain in custody. The Barcelona High Court said one of them is being investigated for public disorder and criminal organisation offences.
The case has also drawn attention to the gender and age of the latest suspects. Of the first 130 people arrested in Barcelona for allegedly taking part in the disturbances, only six were not men.
Sources: elDiario.es.