The Mossos d’Esquadra have been working for some time to tackle the resurgence of the Latin gang phenomenon in Madrid and Barcelona. Unlike the Latin Kings and Ñetas who dominated youth crime news in the 2000s, we are now talking about the Trinitarios, Barrio 18, and the 300 who fight over public spaces and are now in the news because they recruit minors at the doors of secondary schools.
Read more Anti-corruption gives credibility to Aldama’s thesis that he was collecting for the PSOE
Why do these gangs recruit minors under 14 years old? What is their goal? Mayka Navarro, crime reporter for La Vanguardia, answers these and other questions in the video preceding this text. In conversation with Enric Sierra, deputy director of the newspaper, Navarro recalls that in Spain these minors are not criminally responsible and, therefore, enjoy legal impunity if they commit crimes.
The youth gangs know that the police have more difficulties acting when it comes to minors. Despite this, the Mossos d’Esquadra and the Barcelona Guàrdia Urbana have a plan to exert heavy pressure in the places where these young people gather and there they confiscate the knives with which they threaten or fight with rival gangs.
Read more The Prosecutor’s Office supports the partial pardon for Álvaro García Ortiz
Mayka Navarro also explains in the video preceding this text the connection with the Mossos d’Esquadra pilot plan to be present in schools of special complexity from a security point of view. The La Vanguardia reporter points out that the presence of these gangs recruiting minors in schools is one of the reasons explaining this police trial because it seeks to deter the intentions of these violent youth groups.
Additionally, the police are attentive to the connections that may exist between gangs established in Madrid and Barcelona, as well as maintaining contacts with police from the United Kingdom, Switzerland, or Germany where the presence of youth gangs has also been detected.
