Spanish police allege Moroccan officers planned mass crossing into Ceuta
Plainclothes Moroccan officers allegedly gave instructions to facilitate the crossing once people reached El Tarajal
Spain’s National Police allege that members of Morocco’s security forces planned and carried out the mass crossing into Ceuta on 30 and 31 July, according to a report submitted to Judge María Tardón of Spain’s National Court.
The document was prepared by the National Immigration and Borders Centre (CENIF), the intelligence unit of the General Commissariat for Immigration and Borders.
According to published reporting, investigators believe the events were part of an organised operation intended to overwhelm Spanish border controls and limit the authorities’ ability to respond.
The findings form part of a police report included in the judicial investigation and do not constitute a court ruling establishing responsibility for the alleged actions.
Uniformed gendarmes and plainclothes officers at the border
According to the newspaper’s account of the report, uniformed Moroccan gendarmes allegedly directed people gathered in Castillejos, also known as Fnideq, towards the border.
Once they reached El Tarajal, other Moroccan officers, dressed in plain clothes, allegedly gave instructions to facilitate their passage towards the border breakwater.
CENIF states that images appear to support allegations of this involvement and suggests that Moroccan officers supervised the operation on the ground.
The newspaper reports that around 80,000 people allegedly crossed the border over those two days. According to the interpretation attributed to CENIF, the return of many of them to Morocco within hours would support the hypothesis that migration was not the episode’s primary objective.
An account at odds with the Spanish Government’s position
The police findings described by the newspaper contrast with the position it attributes to Pedro Sánchez’s Government, which reportedly denied that the Moroccan authorities had organised the events and instead pointed to people-smuggling networks and countries such as Russia and Israel.
CENIF, by contrast, reportedly links the operation to Morocco’s territorial claims over Ceuta and Melilla. It also interprets the events as an attempt to discredit Spain’s intelligence services, particularly the National Intelligence Centre (CNI).
The report further states that an alert was allegedly issued on 29 July, warning of the risk of a mass arrival by sea the following day.
Investigators reportedly also base their hypothesis of advance planning on the sequence of arrivals: young men equipped to swim across allegedly arrived first, followed by families in more vulnerable circumstances.
According to the published information, the Public Prosecutor’s Office also has a copy of the document, whose findings will need to be assessed as part of the investigation.