Casuals, the criminal gang that was born in the stands of the Camp Nou
Casuals has become one of the main proper names in police and judicial chronicles in recent years in Catalonia. The Mossos d'Esquadra baptized as Hydra the last of the operations against this criminal group whose roots are found in the stands of the Fútbol Club Barcelona. Like the mythological serpent with several heads, when it seemed that they had controlled one of the branches of the investigation, another would appear, leading them to a new crime or another to new suspicions.
After a year and a half of investigations, last Friday the Catalan police dealt a new blow to this gang, to which they attribute the crimes of homicide, kidnapping, cultivation and trafficking of marijuana, threats, injuries, extortion, public disorder and criminal organization. .
The agents arrested 28 people and seized several white and firearms, including katanas and a Thompson submachine gun.. But the blow was not complete. The Mossos Special Intervention Group broke into the home of the leader of the Casuals, Ricardo Mateo, early in the morning, whom they did not find. On the other hand, another of the main lieutenants of the group was arrested, Francisco Pérez, known as Paco el gordo, who in the previous days had already made headlines for the telephone conversation in which he threatened one of the radical fans of Espanyol who jumped onto the field to prevent Barça from celebrating the League title after the last derby in Cornellà. The historical member of the Casuals forced him to remove a tattoo from his arm if he did not want to be stabbed.
Soccer, in which they apply the same intimidation techniques to their rivals as in their criminal activities (they planned to beat up Joan Laporta in his first term as president of Barcelona), ceased to be the main field a little over two decades ago. game for the Casuals, born in the early nineties as an autonomous animation group linked to the Boixos Nois, the most violent followers of the Barça club.
The casual phenomenon, like so many youth subcultures, had its cradle in the United Kingdom, where some hooligans varied their way of dressing in order not to be so easily identifiable.. Their team jerseys, which they used to wear to the field, began to be replaced by polo shirts, shirts, and baseball caps.. The stands of the Camp Nou was the gateway to Spain in this fashion. In their “information sheet number 1”, in which they presented themselves in society, the Casuals defined their style through “unusual and sporty clothing” to distance themselves “from the urban tribes”, which at that time, in the backgrounds of the stadiums, had skinheads as the predominant element.
Presentation of the FCB Casuals three decades ago.
The adoption of the name of that new section of the radical fans of Barça is not in response to an alleged desire to camouflage its members. This was demonstrated by the banner with the Casuals FCB signature, and the double rhombus of the logo of the British clothing brand Umbro in the center, which accompanied them in the matches. The denomination acted more like a seal of quality with which to become strong in the stadiums and their surroundings, which ended up becoming a training ground for mafia practices unrelated to soccer, to which in a few years they ended up exporting their violent and expeditious methods of coercion.
drug robberies
The first activities of their extensive criminal history for which they had to answer before the Justice were the so-called overturns, that is, the theft of drugs from dealers. Posing as civil guards with material provided by a member of the armed institute, Mateo and his subordinates did not hesitate to give beatings if necessary.. Sometimes, as in a 2003 episode, cruelty reached the point of cutting off a drug dealer's finger.
Extortion was also the modus operandi used in famous Barcelona nightlife venues, whose owners were forced to hire them to take care of security if they did not want to have problems inside the rooms.
One of the most reliable signs of the feeling of impunity with which the Casuals were used, and continue to be used, was the confrontation they had with the mossos d'esquadra who were guarding them in the trial held at the Barcelona Court in 2013.. One of the 30 defendants was expelled by the judge after complaining about the extensive police deployment organized for that session. The rest of the defendants got up and threatened to leave the room.. It was then that the altercation between detainees and agents took place that ended with struggles, blows and some defendant reduced to the ground by the police.
Trial of the Casuals in which they faced the Mossos d'Esquadra in 2013.
Mateo, with a sentence of almost 16 years in prison, was one of those convicted in that macro trial, in which several witnesses preferred to retract the statements they had made in the investigation phase for fear of reprisals.
As a result of the last blow dealt by the Mossos, the structure of the group may be diminished (12 members entered provisional prison), as well as its resources. But, until now, neither police pressure nor prison have been enough to put an end to the criminal activity of the Casuals, which have become one of the most dangerous criminal organizations in Catalonia.
That information sheet from 30 years ago, with which they presented themselves as an animation group at the Camp Nou, concluded with a warning that has exceeded their own expectations: “To the parrot with us!”