They are never in the focus, their own partners They look many times with suspicion And for them all victories have a certain bitter taste, because they suppose the confirmation that there are police or civil guards who have crossed The line of legality … .
The internal affairs units of the Security Forces are in recent weeks in all media by two important operations: the one that ended the arrest of the chief inspector under the Command of Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) of Madrid and that of a captain who until his ascent was in charge of the Fiscal Service of the Civil Guard in the port of Valencia. In both cases, The arrests were for their relationships with drug trafficking.
Internal Affairs sources of both bodies consulted by ABC try, also at times like this, put the issue in its right time: «There are more than 160,000 police and civil guards and it is evident that in such a broad collective and that works with such sensitive There will always be corrupt. But the percentage is very low, and when they are detected, whoever is and has the range we have, we are going for it. Our motto is that the one who does it, pays it. And the latest operations, but also many others that sometimes they don’t knowthey demonstrate it ».
The specialization and discretion of men and women from internal affairs units are their best weapons. Very few people They should know what they work forbecause it is the only way to be effective and uncover the inappropriate behaviors of other agents. They do not give their real name, acknowledgments are rarely carried out and, if they have fame, It is to be incorruptible.
On the other side, that of the uniformed people who crossed the line, the main motivation It is usually easy moneysometimes they even get their hands, just to turn a blind eye. These ‘black chickpeas’ have advantage because they know what the methods of police work are. Experts perceive -although they can vary- A pattern that is repeated: They are male, in quarantine, destined in transit places and contact with drug trafficking such as ports or airports, especially in areas of Levante and Andalusia. Hence, at Civil Guard there is a major corruption index, because they are responsible for the surveillance and control of these areas.
One hundred condemnations a year
According to government data, from 2015 to 2024, almost 1,100 agents of both bodiesboth of the National Police (79) and on the Civil Guard (1,018), were convicted and expelled from the service for crimes ranging from belonging to criminal organization and against public health, to the illicit briberyRevelation of secrets and omission of the duty to prosecute crimes. They also consist penalties For ill -treatment in the family field.
There is no single database in the administration that collects the agents or exagents of both bodies that are or They have been investigatedsanctioned or convicted, so the report has the figures provided by the Police and the Armed Institute; And those that do exist do not collect information from the police or civil guards who may be in prison, among other reasons, “because it is possible that the sentence implies the separation of the service and that stop being agents of the bodies», According to an answer sent by the Secretary of State for Relations with the Courts and Constitutional Affairs, after EH-Bildu formally requested the statistics in Congress last December.
Even so, the information available (from 2015 to 2024) and collected in the letter consulted by ABC, It reveals an average of 109 agents convicted of a yearreaching its maximum figure in 2016 with 147 and its minimum last year with 78, adding in both cases those affected by both police and civil guard. It also highlights a gradual decrease of the uniformed sentenced since 2021, a year after the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, when a figure below the hundred was recorded for the first time.
However, many of the operations exploited then have not yet been tried and, therefore, The agents involved are not included in statistics.
According to another report to which this newspaper had access, there were 642 civil guards denounced or charged in 2024, until December 18. And if we go back to 2015, the annual average is 556. From the National Police No data have been provided Regarding despite being requested by ABC repeatedly for weeks. These figures have not been included in the parliamentary response.
There are therefore out of statistics all those cases pending to judge, such as the operation and ratchet, on the alleged contract of contracts, especially uniforms, by those responsible for purchases of the body. Or that of the members of the Police Narcotics Group in Mérida, arrested in 2021 for internal matters for devoting themselves to hashish traffic. Also that of the former Chief of Udef in Madrid, which the agents found more than twenty million euros in November and distributed between two homes and their office.
There is another issue, especially painful for the Internal Affairs Service (SAI), also pending judgment: the alleged chivatazo that one of his gave Lieutenant Colonel David Oliva -in his day Narco roof at the front of anti -roga in the Strait of Gibraltar- and its number two, on ongoing investigations.
According to the data, in 2024, five agents of the Armed Institute entered provisional prison, including the former correspondible to the port of Valencia. They also consist two by belonging to criminal organization and two other cases for ill -treatment. National Police has also not provided data in this regard.
#Internal #Affairs #police #officers #watching #police #officers
