The National Police has 1,399 members were arrested last year youth gangs in Madrid, these 95% male and 37% minor It seized old and also 646 guns and collected 4,360 drug records associated with these groups.
This is the data balance. planning against gangs It was activated exactly one year ago by the Government Delegation in Madrid, where its manager, Mercedes González, reported on the device in an appearance at the Autonomous Assembly Working Commission to address the phenomenon of violent youth gangs in the Community of Madrid.
Among the data provided, González, within a year 109,132 identifications, 56.5% Hispanic. In addition, only one of the 646 weapons seized was a firearm; Instead, 400 pocket knives and knives, 65 machetes, 11 detonators, and 93 bats or brass knuckles were seized.
González recalled that on December 2, 2021, a skirmish plan was put into effect after he found that youth gangs were back in action, as “every seven or eight years”. A new one in February 2022 crime waveThe plan was redesigned to take on a structural character and since then the device has 500 National Police officers operating in the eleven districts of the capital and the municipality of Parla.
Regarding the Civil Guard, González explained that although it has been strengthened, there is almost no gang activity in the municipalities where it operates, and in fact, the presence of violent youth groups is currently known only in the towns of Valdemoro and Galapagar. .
Younger and feminine
The delegate reviewed the trajectory of youth gangs since the phenomenon. Appeared in Spain at the beginning of the 21st centuryand that the “composition, organization and functioning” of these groups is “changing” in accordance with the “fluctuating” nature of their activities.
For example, before groups were “all-male”, only recently a “integration” of women, “providing cover for criminal activities”. “There are girls who get pregnant at a very young age and hide stolen items, guns and drugs in strollers,” González said.
If the gangs were originally more associated with immigration, they are now mostly Spanish. And its members formerly aged 12 to 32, now they usually do not exceed 23and even a 40% of members are underage.
González noted that violence often stems from “random encounters” between rival gangs, and their crimes most often include riots, violent robberies and intimidation.