Mossos d’Esquadra arrested four men in Bellpuig, Lleida, on charges of abducting a person and attempting to move him by vehicle toward France. The incident unfolded after authorities received a report that raised alarms about a possible kidnapping and a planned shift in the victim’s location across regional borders.
According to statements from the Catalan police, a person presenting himself as a relative of the supposed victim contacted the police around 22:30 yesterday to report the suspected kidnapping. The information conveyed pointed to a motorized escape route and identified the vehicle involved, which later disappeared from view as the suspects sought to reach France, a country where they were believed to have ties or residence.
The victim’s own relative had been tracking the victim’s car with his own vehicle, attempting to alert the alleged abductors and dissuade them from continuing with the travel plan to Catalan authorities. However, the tracker lost sight of the suspect vehicle when it passed into Alcarràs, creating a new layer of urgency for the response teams to adapt their search as the situation evolved in real time.
News of the kidnapping triggered a rapid mobilization by the Mossos d’Esquadra, who activated a tactical device designed to coordinate multiple patrols from the Ponent police district. The objective was to establish a perimeter and monitor adjacent zones in the path where the suspects were believed to be moving, ensuring that any attempt to cross provincial or regional boundaries could be intercepted promptly.
In addition to road checks, officers established numerous controls along the A-2 corridor and at the entry and exit points of the highway network that could serve as bottlenecks or escape routes for the suspects. The coordinated approach combined roadblock tactics with strategic positioning so officers could observe, interdict, and respond without tipping off the alleged kidnappers prematurely.
By approximately 23:15, a Mossos patrol located the suspects’ vehicle in Bellpuig, Lleida, and the officers blocked the road to halt the escape. A controlled stop was executed to ensure safety for the potential victims and to prevent any further risk of harm while the suspects were brought into custody and the scene secured for investigation.
The operation culminated in the detention of four individuals, aged between 23 and 38, and the safe recovery of the victim. The individual believed to be the person abducted was found unharmed and was checked by medical personnel to confirm their well-being before any formal procedures proceeded. The identities of those detained are being withheld at this stage as part of standard investigative protocol until formal charges are issued and further steps are taken in line with judicial proceedings.
Responding authorities from the Mossos d’Esquadra Investigation Unit in Cervera, Lleida, have launched a formal inquiry to determine the full sequence of events surrounding the alleged kidnapping. Investigators are examining all available evidence, including vehicle trajectories, communications among the involved parties, and potential motives. At this point, no single hypothesis has been ruled out, and investigators are pursuing every lead that could clarify whether a direct confrontation or other forms of resistance occurred during the event.