Seizures of bladed weapons in Tarragona have doubled in five years and have gone from 261 in 2019 to 508 in 2024. The figure is equivalent to about ten interventions each week in the city, in a context of reinforced police controls and preventive devices promoted by the Mossos d'Esquadra and the Guàrdia Urbana.
The increase coincides with the activation of Pla Daga in February 2023, a strategy by the Mossos to intensify surveillance in risk areas and their surroundings. The operation seeks to remove bladed weapons from public streets, prevent violent situations, and detect individuals with arrest warrants or orders for imprisonment.
"The impact of Pla Daga since its implementation, in February 2023, has allowed more bladed weapons to be removed from public streets" - Josep Lluís Trapero, director general of the Mossos
More controls and reinforcement on the street
In Tarragona, this line of work has also been reinforced with the creation of the Police Reinforcement and Proximity Unit of the Urban Guard, conceived to act with greater intensity in specific points of the city. From the municipal body it is admitted that the increase in interventions is directly related to greater police pressure.
"More controls are being carried out, and that leads to more situations being detected" - Sources from the Guàrdia Urbana
Other police sources follow the same line, pointing to reinforced preventive patrolling and specific devices in constant coordination with Mossos. Regarding the new municipal unit, sources from the force emphasize that it carries out relevant work because it acts intensively and selectively in different areas.
"From the Guàrdia Urbana we exercise a forceful and constant surveillance over bladed weapons; we are and will be very much on top of it, we will not let a single one pass and anyone carrying one will be reported, as carrying a bladed weapon on the street should not be normalized" - Manel Vázquez, intendant of the Guàrdia Urbana of Tarragona
No decrease in aggressions
Despite the increase in seizures, internal police sources maintain that there has been no reduction in attacks. Among officers, concern persists over the ease with which these objects continue to circulate and over the perception of impunity among some carriers.
"There is a feeling of impunity among those who carry these objects" - Agent
Generally, police sources place the profile of those detected with these weapons in young people between 16 and 30 years old and in organized groups. They also warn of a change in the type of objects found during controls.
"Before, many knives were seen, but now we increasingly find more automatic ones or even machetes" - Mossos Agent
"It is a cheap and accessible instrument" - Agent
What weapons are prohibited and when are sanctions applied
The regulations prohibit carrying certain weapons even if they can be legally acquired. Among them are expandable batons, tonfas, double-edged daggers, nunchaku, knife keychains, skull crushers, tasers, and brass knuckles. Also prohibited are pocket knives or knives with blades longer than eleven centimeters.
Context is decisive when it comes to assessing the infraction. Carrying a knife, even if small, in a nightclub constitutes an infraction, whereas that same object may not be punishable in an environment such as mushroom picking in the mountains. The consequences range from administrative fines of 600 to 30,000 euros to prison sentences of one to three years in the foreseen cases.
Training in schools and nightlife
The police strategy is being accompanied by prevention and training actions. Talks aimed at schools, security guards, and nightlife staff have been initiated, with the intention of curbing the normalization of carrying bladed weapons and improving the detection of risk situations in spaces where young people and large groups gather.
The balance in Tarragona thus reflects a greater capacity for detection and removal of bladed weapons from the street, supported by more controls and by coordination between police forces, although the challenge remains open while aggressions do not decrease and these objects continue to appear frequently in preventive devices.