Police Arrest Two Lleida Teens Over Blocus Calls for Barcelona Riots
Policía Nacional detained two minors in Lleida over the Blocus channels behind the Oct. 24 Barcelona riots. Arrests, charges and the open questions.
The Policía Nacional (Spain’s national police force) arrested two minors in Lleida on Thursday, accusing them of helping run the Blocus channels on social media that called for the riots and looting in central Barcelona on Oct. 24. Catalan public broadcaster 3Cat reported the boys are 15 and 16 years old, while ElNacional.cat said both are 15.
According to 3Cat, the two bring the number of people detained in Catalonia in the Blocus investigation to nine, six of them minors. ElNacional.cat put the Catalan total at around a dozen and said the figure could still rise.
Who has been detained so far
ElNacional.cat reported that the Lleida arrests were carried out by the Policía Nacional’s provincial intelligence brigade in Lleida, working with its counterpart in Barcelona. Investigators accuse the boys of managing groups where messages urging people to join the unrest were spread. The outlet said one of them is Spanish and the other a foreign national, and that both have North African roots.
3Cat listed the earlier arrests in Catalonia. The first was a 16-year-old in Bellmunt d’Urgell last Thursday. A 17-year-old was held in Sant Sadurní d’Anoia the next day, along with an 18-year-old in Barcelona. Police then detained a 21-year-old in Cabrera d’Anoia on Saturday, two girls aged 14 and 17 in the Maresme and Bages areas on Monday, and an 18-year-old woman in Barcelona on Wednesday. ElNacional.cat said that last arrest, by the Mossos d’Esquadra (Catalonia’s police), took place in the upper part of the city.
Four more people have been arrested in the Valencia region. ElNacional.cat said one of them, a 20-year-old held by the Guardia Civil in Picanya, is accused of being one of the main Blocus agitators. Investigators link him to running several Telegram channels and to a video in which he appeared hooded, with glasses and a distorted voice, calling for the Barcelona riots to be repeated. A judge sent him to prison.
Charges and the earlier street arrests
Of those detained in Catalonia, four have been sent by court order to prison or to juvenile centres, according to ElNacional.cat. The suspects are being investigated for conspiracy to commit public disorder and, in some cases, for belonging to a criminal organization or criminal group.
These arrests are separate from the 130 people the Mossos detained for the Oct. 24 violence itself. Most of them were minors who took part in looting, theft and damage to shops in the city centre, and the Mossos are still trying to identify others who were there.
The Mossos also arrested 14 young people over unrest in Manresa on Oct. 21. Thirteen were minors and one was 19. That trouble broke out after a student gathering, when groups of young people damaged property and raided supermarkets. No prior social media call was found in that case, but the Mossos believe Manresa may have been the seed of what hit Barcelona three days later, ElNacional.cat reported.
What it means for Barcelona residents
Catalan president Salvador Illa wrote on X that there will be “no impunity” for anyone who causes riots, looting or violence in Catalonia. He said the day’s arrests of 16 young people in Manresa and Lleida show that everyone involved will face the courts, and that where they are minors, their families will have to answer.
The Mossos, the Policía Nacional and the Guardia Civil say they plan further arrests as they go through the Telegram channels and other networks used to spread the calls. So far investigators have not found a formal organization behind Blocus. Police analysis described by ElNacional.cat points to a decentralized movement with no stable leadership and no clear ideology, whose aim was to cause disorder for its own sake.
Questions still open
Investigators want to establish where Blocus started, whether anyone shaped it from behind the scenes, and whether the arrests have broken its ability to mobilize. Spain’s intelligence services, including the CNI (Centro Nacional de Inteligencia, the national intelligence agency), are also examining whether foreign interference played a part in the days before Oct. 24. That is one hypothesis under review, and no evidence of outside direction has been made public.
Sources: 3Cat 324, go.eln.cat
