The declassified reports from the National Intelligence Center (CNI) on the assault on Ceuta and sent to the Council of Ministers expose a very important part of the Government’s version. On one hand, it is confirmed that the Government Delegation in Ceuta knew about it, because on the 29th it received a tactical report “due to the extraordinary seriousness” of the situation looming for the Throne Festival, the next day. On the other hand, the CNI also warned the intelligence services of Morocco.
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The Government has defended that it did not know the severity of the existing risk, and specifically the delegate in Ceuta denied having received warnings; now it is revealed that he did receive them. In addition, several ministers have praised Morocco’s cooperation. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has highlighted the “essential” collaboration of Rabat to stop the crisis, when it is evident that it did nothing to prevent the assault on Ceuta despite knowing about it in advance.
The declassified reports are different. The first one prepared by the CNI corresponds to July 27 and was sent to the Presidency of the Government. It was what is called a “strategic note,” that is, a note like many others that are regularly sent, but it already warned that there was high migratory pressure in Ceuta and Melilla.
Furthermore, this note alerted to the possibility of a swimming assault on Ceuta, as eventually happened. Also, and in this it coincides with the first explanation offered by Pedro Sánchez, this intention to migrate to Spain was linked to the Supreme Court ruling.
The second note, however, is not a conventional note. It is a tactical note sent on July 29 through an early warning channel to three actors: Civil Guard, National Police, and Government Delegation.
Regarding the Civil Guard, whose competence is the physical security of the borders, it was sent to UCE-3, that is, to the Central Special Unit 3 of the Information services of the Benemérita. Meanwhile, the National Police received that note in the CENIF, the intelligence unit of the General Commissariat of Foreigners and Borders. Both Police and Civil Guard are the usual recipients of notes like this.
However, on this occasion, and due to the “extraordinary seriousness” of the situation, the Government Delegation in Ceuta was included, according to sources familiar with the case, and the note was sent to its chief of staff.
The proof precisely of that sending is in this WhatsApp conversation between the CNI and the Government Delegation, also declassified:
CNI: On social media there is a call for an assault by fence and sea tomorrow at 8pm.
CNI: Taking advantage of the throne festival and that their security forces will be busy
CNI: There are two different groups with a total of 180,000 followers
CNI: To give you an idea of the reach of the dissemination
Delegation: Their rilas
21:34
Delegation: Call (11 minutes)
This note, finally, was also sent that same day, the 29th, to the intelligence services of Morocco: it was received by the DGST and the DGED, that is, the internal and external intelligence services, respectively.
Regarding the detail of this note from the 29th, the CNI agents and analysts identified a very clear threat: calls for a massive swimming assault on the city of Ceuta by organized groups, and a very clear date: the Throne Festival, which would take place the next day.
Of all the organized groups, the Spanish intelligence services identified in the note three groups as the most numerous, and therefore those that could cause the most problems. The first was a WhatsApp group called “Assault on the Ceuta Fence”.
The second and largest of all was a Facebook group with more than 160,000 members called Ceuta Fnideq [the Arabic name of Castillejos]. The third, also a Facebook group, was called Hraga Ceuta [the expression hraga means ‘the one who burns’], and had more than 2,000 members.
Among the posts that stand out in those groups, it says: “Whoever wants to cross has the last chance at the throne festival at 8, the authorities will be distracted with celebration and parades”.
Regarding the possibility that Morocco was behind the organization of the assault and that it was an operation orchestrated from some institution of the Alaouite State, the declassified reports say nothing. That, according to intelligence experts, would be another matter, a topic to investigate separately.
