The judge of the National Court María Tardón has agreed to investigate the massive irregular entry in Ceuta on July 30 and 31 as a serious attack against the territorial integrity of Spain and affecting the peace or independence of the State.
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The investigating judge has declared the jurisdiction of the National Court to investigate the massive irregular entry in Ceuta from Morocco on July 30 and 31 as these are crimes that compromise the peace or independence of the State, against the rights of foreign citizens in connection with reckless homicides, as well as criminal organization.
In the order, it explains that the Penal Code establishes within the crime against peace “illegal acts or those not duly authorized” that expose “Spaniards to experience humiliations or reprisals on their persons or property.”
The magistrate holds that “we are facing a criminal conduct allegedly committed abroad that has seriously attacked the territorial integrity of Spain, which is guaranteed in Article 2 of the Constitution, using the massive entry into our country, to which irregular migratory flows that have seriously affected the life and rights of the citizens of Ceuta have joined.”
Last Friday the Prosecutor’s Office had informed in favor of the jurisdiction of the National Court although it focused the possible authorship on some criminal organization. It is true that it already pointed to the possibility, as the investigation progressed, that a crime against the peace or independence of the State could have been committed.
In her order admitting jurisdiction, which includes a favorable report from the Prosecutor’s Office to investigate these facts, the judge includes the report from the National Immigration and Borders Center (CENIF) of the Police on the development of the events, which shows that these were not incidental, occasional, or spontaneous actions, but a process in which the migratory purpose operated only as a formal cover.
It indicates that in the phase prior to the massive entry on July 30, there was a sustained and growing situation in entries to Ceuta, while highlighting the unique importance of social networks for the mass propagation of the call.
The judge considers that prior to the massive entry the risk of massive entry was already detected, which was alerted in a police report on July 29, one day before the events. In this alert, the judge notes, the forecast of an extreme risk for a scenario of swimming entries plus jumping the fence “in a coordinated manner” was already recorded.
The phase in which the massive mobilization occurred, according to the order, reveals waves of different intensity and profile, which caused a collapse of the response capacities by the Spanish border control system and a massive violation of Spain’s territorial sovereignty.
Finally, in the phase after the massive entry, the resolution continues, “various subsequent destabilizing effects occurred in Spain’s response capacity system that are still evolving. These consequences influenced different areas such as Public Security, Health, Social Services, Defense, etc. There were also other effects of an international or geopolitical profile, effects on internal politics “sustained and amplified with some cases of disinformation/counter-narrative, etc.”
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The judge also notes in her order that access to Ceuta those days occurred through different waves of people of different types, with “absolute disregard for the lives of the most vulnerable people” who made them up, and to whom, despite their circumstances, they were led to throw themselves into the sea without preparation, equipped with inadequate clothing that could hinder their movements in the water and provided with precarious flotation elements.
“There has also been clear and undeniable facilitative management of the process from the territory of the Kingdom of Morocco, on the beach of Fnideq itself and places adjacent to that area in the city of Castillejos. This is evidenced by the behavior of the Moroccan Security Forces, “extensively” documented in the police report, as well as through social networks.
In her opinion, the attitude of the Moroccan police of “permissiveness” was of “active guidance,” as also defined by the Police. She points out in the evidence provided how the uniformed police themselves “give instructions to the people who illegally crossed the border, to direct them on how to carry out the crossing, overcome the obstacles existing at that access and even organizing access to the area leading to Fnideq Beach, and already within its waters.” Added to this is – according to the order – the existence of agents who mobilize the mass of people entering Spanish territory.
Tardón considers that behind this action there was intent to attack the State, violating its territorial integrity, “as the President of the Government rightly pointed out who, during his visit to Ceuta on July 31, 2026, defined the events as “an attack, a violation of the territorial integrity of Spain.”
And this, through a massive migratory flow that constitutes one of the characteristic methods of “hybrid war” or “gray zone,” with the aim of altering the life and rights of Spanish citizens, specifically, of an entire Autonomous City“.
The judge recalls that the use of migratory flows is one more of the methods used in “hybrid war” or “gray zone” actions in which attacks on States can occur, “often combining internet calls with disinformation on social networks, and which, as in the present case and usually, are committed abroad, so the jurisdiction to investigate them corresponds to the National Court.”
On the other hand, Tardón considers that the death of 83 people while trying to swim across the border must be investigated. The order recounts that these people lost their lives by drowning or crushing in the swim from Moroccan territory, where they were incited to throw themselves into the sea, “disregarding their physical conditions and without taking into account the vulnerability of many of them.” Those who instigated the crossing did so without considering that there were elderly people, families with children, some babies in their parents’ arms, “providing them with flimsy flotation instruments, some little more than toys, so that in this way they entered massively on the Spanish beach of El Tarajal, with the dramatic consequence that they lost their lives on that journey.”
The order adds that the facts fit perfectly into the risk assumptions foreseen in the National Security Strategy which states: “The autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, due to their geographical location on the African continent and the specificity of their Spanish and European border, require special attention from the General State Administration to guarantee the security and well-being of their citizens.” “Precisely –concludes the magistrate– because they can be the target of the use of irregular migratory flows to destabilize National Security.”
