Mossos highlight the importance of citizen collaboration to detect potential terrorists

They tracked 175 possible cases of violent radicalization in 2022

   BARCELONA, 17 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The head of the Central Analysis Area of ​​the General Information Commissioner, Inspector Lluís Paradell, has highlighted the importance of citizen collaboration to detect potential terrorists or radicalized people.

He explained it in an interview with Europa Press, in which he assured that citizens "do not have to be aware or obsessed", but he has asked that if they detect any situation that may be linked to a terrorist threat, they notify it by phone. 937 285 220 or email mossos.terrorisme@gencat.cat.

"This is a very important route, because the vast majority of times it is not information that leads us to a real threat, but only one in 1,000 is real, it is already worth it. This element is very important," he stressed.

Paradell explained that since the attacks on the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris on January 7, 2015, terrorist alert level 4 was activated and, although there is a certain modulation in the level --since it is not the same threat the situation during February 2015 that currently--, "the threat has by no means disappeared."

The inspector has stated that one of the objectives of the terrorists is "to have an impact, since the objective is not to kill people specifically to kill them, but so that that causes some change."

"The attacks like the one on La Rambla in Barcelona on August 17 will have much more repercussions, because people of many nationalities were killed and had repercussions in many countries. This element of killing people with different origins is something that we know is of interest to them. ", has said.

He explained that the intelligence services do a job of preventing and constantly monitoring any threat to security, and has ensured that ideologies are not the most relevant, "but how some people interpret that they have to achieve the objectives of that ideology".

"We make an assessment of the threat to try to identify what could be the ways of acting of the potential attackers, to detect these groups, neutralize them and also identify people who justify the ideology and try to spread these ideas through the networks or with other people," he added.

He has also denied that, when there is an anti-terrorist operation in which several people linked to terrorist crimes are arrested, the people "were about to commit an action, this is no longer the case."

The Mossos d'Esquadra have detected that, from 2019 to 2022, there have been 53 terrorist actions, 50 of them carried out by people who were not part of any terrorist organization, "but who assumed the ideas and methods of defending them violently and they simply decided to commit the action in the name of that cause."

In addition, he explained that these people use the networks to spread propaganda and try to convince and attract people and that, sometimes, someone in contact with the organization guides and suggests ways to make potential terrorists.

"Some people with behavioral disorders or mental illnesses who defend this type of ideology can be influenced. Also by the context, because if they see on the news that a person in another country has committed an action, they can also do it by mimicry, and this seems like it could be an attack inspired by terrorism, but it is not," Paradell has defended.

The Mossos d'Esquadra explained in a statement that in 2022 they monitored 175 possible cases of violent radicalization, 84% due to jihadism, 10% ultra-right and 6% corresponding to other types.

The intervention mechanisms "reduced the situation" and allowed a possible radicalization process to be stopped in 61.8% of the cases in the first 6 months from its detection.

In addition, a further 22.7% were reversed within a year of their detection, and 15.5% of the files remain active after one year and multidisciplinary intervention continues.