The Mossos d’Esquadra are following the trail of the promoters of Blocus, the brand used on social media to disseminate the calls that led to looting, fires, and attacks on the police in Barcelona on Saturday. The investigation seeks to identify those who administer the accounts and messaging groups from which new assaults on businesses for Halloween have been encouraged, while Telegram has closed three of those groups, according to information published by 'El País'.
The Catalan police have resorted to the Center for Intelligence against Terrorism and Organized Crime (CITCO), dependent on the Ministry of Interior, to process requests for the removal of the channels. Their administrators had begun to open alternative groups as the previous ones were exposed or shut down.
The updated balance for Saturday is 130 arrests, 76 of them minors, and about thirty establishments that suffered damage or looting. The disturbances spread through Plaça de Catalunya and its surroundings after a call disseminated through networks gathered hundreds of young people. There were shattered shop windows, destroyed urban furniture, fires, and injured officers.
The investigation remains open both on those who participated in the attacks and on their possible instigators. The Mossos have formed a joint team that analyzes images, identifications, and other evidence, in addition to tracking digital activity. The identity of the main operators of Blocus remains unclear.
Student claims led to chats encouraging looting
The analysis of the calls shows how public messages about educational problems or social protests served to attract young people to groups where calls to rob and attack businesses circulated. The Minister of Interior, Núria Parlon, summarized what happened on Saturday with an unequivocal expression, "it was delinquency", and pointed out that the objective was to generate chaos and take advantage of it to commit robberies with force and assault officers.
An investigation by Golden Owl, a company specialized in open-source intelligence linked to the Alicante Science Park, has tracked more than 10,000 elements on seven platforms. Its report finds indications of activity under the Blocus brand in 18 localities in 11 autonomous communities, with different levels of confirmation depending on the territory.
The document places the first signs of this activity in Madrid during the first week of October and reconstructs a subsequent concentration of accounts in Barcelona. On October 19, several profiles were created, reactivated, or renamed to promote the call for Saturday the 24th.
The posters and videos, some generated with artificial intelligence, circulated on TikTok and Instagram. From these publications, interested parties were directed to Telegram or WhatsApp, where messages appeared to choose shops, go with their faces covered, and commit looting. The subsequent dissemination of videos of the riots multiplied the reach of initially small organizing accounts.
The content of the chats allows us to know the attractiveness with which they tried to add participants. "Don't you want to go home with Rolex, iPhones, Gucci, LV, Hermès?", asked one of the messages collected by 'El Periódico' in a group opened after the blocking of the previous one. Others asked to spread the call among classmates and increase the number of attendees.
The public exposure of these messages caused changes in the channels. According to the report, thousands of publications ceased to be visible and some explicit calls were replaced by ironic references to meetings for a drink or to practice yoga. Restricted access groups were also announced.
Golden Owl describes a brand shared by accounts that are reused, renamed, or disappear, with graphic materials and messages that are repeated in different cities. The study identifies recruitment and coordination mechanisms, but leaves pending the real identity of those responsible and the existence of possible sponsors. Nor does it accredit a foreign address.
New Golden Owl® research maps the expansion of "Blocus" beyond Barcelona.
— Golden Owl (@GoldenOwl_AI) October 26, 2026
→ mobilisation spreading to multiple Spanish cities
→ anonymous TikTok accounts feeding users into Telegram and WhatsApp groups
→ minors and very young participants forming a significant part of the… pic.twitter.com/y95fkyNfnv
Digital activity reaches dates after Halloween. The report includes calls for October 31, November 2, and November 30, the latter day immediately after the general elections. The presence of a call on social networks, however, offers a limited measure of its real mobilization capacity.
On Monday, for example, a new gathering in the vicinity of Plaça d'Espanya forced the deployment of a preventive device, but it did not reproduce Saturday's disturbances. In Madrid, one of the profiles announced this Tuesday that it was suspending next weekend's call because it had lost the "surprise factor", according to 'Cadena SER'.
Any operational relationship with the Monday's altercations in Bilbao also remains to be determined, which occurred after protests against the finally canceled event of ultra agitator Vito Quiles. Although the report includes digital calls under the same brand in that city, investigation sources have indicated to SER that they have not yet found reliable evidence linking both episodes.
The Golden Owl analysis also warns of another risk. After the looting, accounts appeared encouraging violent reprisals against immigrants and participants in the riots. The document studies these messages separately and notes that their operational connection with Blocus remains unproven.
The Govern will take legal action against the perpetrators and instigators
The Generalitat has agreed this Tuesday to appear as a private prosecution and to exercise the corresponding criminal and civil actions for the damages caused and the injuries suffered by public employees. The Legal Cabinet will initiate the necessary actions and will assume, in accordance with regulations, the assistance and defense of the affected personnel.
The spokesperson for the Govern, Sílvia Paneque, has announced that the available mechanisms will be used to act "with the full weight of the law" against those responsible. The agreement also contemplates the possibility of exercising popular prosecution when the legal requirements are met.
The police response is being reviewed in light of the new calls. Paneque has defended Saturday's actions, questioned by opposition parties and union representatives, but has acknowledged that the devices are adapting to a form of violence that goes beyond the pattern of a conventional demonstration. The Mossos maintain surveillance over accounts and messaging groups to detect new incitements and identify their promoters.
The CITCO's intervention is channeled through its National Unit for the Removal of Illicit Content on the Internet (UNECI). This unit acts as an interlocutor with platforms to request the removal of content. In the case of groups that promote disturbances, closure through this channel depends on the collaboration of the companies, according to police sources cited by El País.
The first group closed, BLOCUS-BCN, was replaced by another that exceeded 2,000 members in a few hours. That second version was blocked this Tuesday and a third was closed before six in the afternoon. The reopening of channels and the transfer to more restricted conversations complicate monitoring, so the closure of the groups is combined with the investigation into those who control them.
Precautionary measures have already been adopted in the courts. The Prosecutor's Office requested six juvenile detentions and supervised release measures with restrictions on attending concentrations. In the first cases resolved, the closed-regime detention of three adolescents has been reported, in addition to prohibitions from attending or approaching certain meetings and demonstrations.
Some of the adults have been provisionally released with precautionary measures. The cases investigate alleged crimes such as public disorder, damage, robbery with force, and assault on agents of authority, depending on the facts attributed to each detainee.
The Government has also focused on responsibility for damages caused by minors. The Juvenile Criminal Responsibility Law establishes the joint and several civil liability of parents, guardians, foster parents, or custodians, in the order legally provided. The judge can moderate it when they have not favored the minor's conduct with intent or gross negligence.
While the proceedings advance, Salvador Illa has promised to go all the way to identify the organizers. Pedro Sánchez has expressed his support for the agents and merchants and has defended "zero tolerance for the violent".
Violence has come to occupy a central part of the pre-campaign for 29N. The government spokesperson, Elma Saiz, has condemned the attacks and called for responsibility from political leaders, in addition to demanding that investigators be allowed to work. She has called it an "outrage" that the PP blames the Executive for the violent episodes.
From the far-right Vox, Santiago Abascal has gone so far as to state that Sánchez is "capable of ordering them everything", including "street terrorism". This accusation lacks support in the known police findings. The identity of those who run the accounts and the origin of the calls continue to be precisely part of what is being investigated.
In the debate about the altercations, Ione Belarra has warned of the attempt to mix these events with legitimate and peaceful mobilizations to criminalize protest. For her part, Paneque has accused Feijóo of making "absolutely unfounded accusations" and has demanded that the investigation remain outside the electoral dispute.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo will travel tomorrow, Wednesday, October 28, to Barcelona with Xavier García Albiol, to convey his support to the affected residents, merchants, and agents. The leader of the PP has announced that he will propose toughening the criminal response to violent acts called through networks and those committed with faces covered.
