Interior plans to replace 5,000 'mossos' if they disobey again after the sentence of 'procés'

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The State Security Forces and Corps have been working for two years on a contingency plan to intervene the Catalan regional police in case of disobedience.

The Secretary of State for the Interior ordered the Civil Guard and the National Police during the Government of Mariano Rajoy to prepare in-depth studies to take control of the regional police if necessary. These documents have been working so far.

These plans are currently in the hands of the Ministry of Interior in case it is considered appropriate for its implementation and cover, according to official sources, "from the most serious scenario to absolute normality."

As EL MUNDO revealed, the President of the Government is willing to activate the National Security Law if the tension in Catalonia is aggravated, in which case he would contemplate the elaboration of a presidential decree to take immediate control of the Mossos d'Esquadra.

In the event that, on the occasion of the next sentence of the 'procés', an exceptional situation took place, the Executive plans to publish the aforementioned decree in the Official State Gazette , which does not require an agreement of the Council of Ministers and that based on the powers granted to the president by articles 15 and 24 of the National Security Law.

Sánchez "trust the Mossos"

This extreme, however, as pointed out by the Government, is not considered at this time, since, as Pedro Sánchez himself has publicly stated, "trust the Mossos."

At the same time, the "very satisfactory" cooperation with the Catalan police during the last months and especially with the new general director Pere Ferrer is valued from the Interior.

According to assure this newspaper various sources that have intervened in the preparation of the aforementioned contingency plan, the Civil Guard approach comes to contemplate a militarized takeover of the autonomous body with the landing of some 5,000 troops at different levels of command.

In this sense, the same sources point out, the takeover has been designed by replacing at least three levels of those responsible that would be replaced in block by members of the Security Forces and Bodies.

In a first stage, the replacement of the high command from the level of lieutenant colonel would be approached, using the equivalence with Police and Civil Guard, all the controls being automatically relieved. In a second phase the same would be done with the strip between commander and non-commissioned officer, and the third would cover the rest of the scale. It would be, therefore, in a situation of extraordinary gravity, a "substitution of charges, by levels, without analyzing the profiles of the controls."

During these years it has been discussed internally within the Security Forces and Corps about whether the characteristics of each of those responsible for the Mossos d'Esquadra should be analyzed. In other words, if it was convenient to selectively keep those who defended compliance with the law and, in the words of the police and civil guards themselves, were "loyal" to the legal system. However, the position tending to carry out a "military substitution" has ended up prevailing in case the situation is extremely serious.

Two action plans

In that scenario one would not distinguish between certain profiles, but simply between charges that would be replaced in block. According to this project, some 5,000 troops would be needed to take command of the Catalan regional police, which currently has a workforce of 16,000 people.

Together with this more severe intervention, the same sources add, the possibility of implementing a much more lax plan has also been addressed. It would be a project in which the Security Forces and Bodies would limit themselves to "supervising" the work of the Catalan police, but without removing the Mossos commanders from their posts.

In this line, it has been considered as a "logical" position to be carried out, in addition, a territorial distribution of the tasks between Civil Guard and National Police, the latter reserving the large cities and the first the rest of municipalities of Catalonia.

For its part, the National Police has carried out in parallel a thorough study of each of the profiles that have held positions of responsibility in the Mossos d'Esquadra to contemplate a selective substitution that, from the Civil Guard, has never Been seen with good eyes.

Controls 'loyal' to independence

Thanks to the information provided by members of the autonomous police themselves contrary to independent drift, a complete list of police officers was drawn up to whom, since the illegal referendum of October 1, 2017, they are attributed "manifest loyalty to the independence movement. "

One of these documents, to which this newspaper has had access, identifies a fortnight of very high-ranking commanders with the secessionist cause and that, according to police documentation, should be "neutralized in their positions in case of intervention by the central government" .

Official sources acknowledge to this newspaper that the Security Forces contemplate "any scenario" and that contingency plans are prepared in case their application is necessary, although they emphasize their "optimism".

However, during the last major police operation in Catalonia against the CDR, who planned to attempt the day of the sentence of the procés, the Civil Guard has avoided sharing information with the Mossos due to mistrust.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• Mossos d'Esquadra
• Civil Guard
• National Police
• Catalonia
• Pedro Sanchez
• Mariano Rajoy
• 1-O trial

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