Hugging pickpockets gang taken down by Spanish police, 9 in 10 Spaniards against Trump’s tariff war and more news from Spain on Monday April 14th.
Almost 90 percent of Spaniards are against Trump’s tariff war
Spaniards are overwhelmingly against US President Donald Trump’s tariff far, new polling from La Sexta reveals.
89 percent of Spaniards reported that they were “very” or “quite” concerned by recent economic developments. The issue was one of the few occasions on which supporters across the political spectrum agreed, besides far-right Vox voters.
As for how it might affect Spain, the majority polled believe that it will have a “great deal” or a “fair amount” of impact, 51.7 percent and 36.6 percent respectively.
READ ALSO: How is Spain reacting to Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs?
Hugging pickpockets gang taken down by Spanish police
Spanish police have arrested more than twenty people involved in a criminal network that carried out robberies by hugging victims.
During the police operation, carried out in conjunction with Romanian police and coordinated by Europol, 21 arrests were made, 13 in Murcia and 8 in Madrid. Sixteen searches were carried out in which evidence of 46 alleged crimes against property was discovered.
Spanish media reports that the hugging technique was used to catch victims unaware, and that the thieves would approach in friendly demeanour before hugging and robbing them.
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Ione Belarra re-elected general secretary of hard-left Podemos
Hard-left Podemos reelected Ione Belarra as its general secretary at party conference in Madrid over the weekend
Belerra, the only candidate to run, was rubber stamped by the party membership with 90 percent of the vote.
Since serving as the junior coalition partner in the first Pedro Sánchez government, Podemos has hit a low point in its fortunes and is currently polling between 2 percent and 4 percent in the polls. Recently the party announced that controversial figure and former Equalities Minister Irene Montero will lead the party into the next general election, whenever it comes.
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Spanish marine park defends facilities after France orca transfer blocked
A Spanish aquatic park which authorities prevented from taking in two orcas from a shuttered French attraction that was criticised by animal rights groups denied on Friday it was unfit to shelter them.
France has been struggling to find a home for Wikie, 24, and her 11-year-old calf Keijo after a French Riviera marine park, Marineland, closed down over a law banning shows featuring marine mammals from December 2026.
Earlier this week, Spanish authorities blocked the transfer of the two orcas, as well as 12 dolphins, from Marineland after a committee ruled the parks due to host them lacked the proper facilities.
The two killer whales were due to go to Loro Parque on the Canary island of Tenerife and the 12 dolphins to a Madrid aquarium.
Loro Parque told AFP in a statement it “strictly complies with all standards and recommendations for the care of dolphins and orcas under human care”.
Spain busts ring bringing Moroccans in via Romania
Spanish police said on Sunday they had broken a ring that had brought in up to 2,500 Moroccan irregular immigrants via Romania, arresting four suspects.
The four were detained in the southeastern Murcia province on charges of belonging to a criminal organisation and facilitating irregular migration, the Guardia Civil said in a statement.
The Moroccans entered Europe by plane to Romania, from where they were transported to Spain, with each one charged 3,000 euros ($3,400) for the voyage, it said.
The suspects were alleged to be the ringleaders of the organisation. Their nationalities were not specified.
Spanish authorities believe the ring organised 50 such trips over the past two years, each one composed of between 20 and 50 Moroccans, making for a total of between 1,000 and 2,500 irregular immigrants.
The outfit was alleged to have a “logistics centre” in Romania where it hid the migrants while they awaited their transport to Spain.
The Guardia Civil said the operation to bust the ring was conducted with the help of Europol and the European Union’s border patrol agency Frontex.
