Catalan fugitive fled after police drone turned away at key moment

It wasn’t long after Carles Puigdemont, the fugitive Catalan independence leader, shocked Spain by resurfacing in Barcelona, that he disappeared again.
After arriving two weeks ago for the first time since fleeing following an illegal referendum in 2017 and subsequently declaring independence for the Catalan region, Puigdemont addressed crowds and then vanished, evading a massive police manhunt. Now it has emerged that a police aerial drone that was following his every movement during his return switched away from him at the crucial moment that he made his escape.
The revelation comes from Mossos d’Esquadra — the Catalan police force — in a report leaked to Spanish media that also confessed to having no plan in the case that Puigdemont did not surrender himself voluntarily, as he previously indicated he would do.
The ex-president of the Catalan government made a laughing stock of the force by slipping through their net on August 1.
In a final desperate bid to block the investiture of a regional socialist leader as Catalonia’s new president, Puigdemont promised supporters he would present himself at the parliamentary investiture vote — in the knowledge that his inevitable arrest and imprisonment would scupper or delay the ceremony.
But Mossos have admitted that, in spite of Puigdemont’s record of breaking his word, they based their entire operation for the day on his voluntary surrender, before or after the vote was taken. For this reason they had only one plain-clothes officer mingling with the fugitive’s supporters, the main body of officers being inside the parliament building.
Puigdemont was allowed to make his way to a stage set up a few minutes’ walk from the parliament, where he made a brief speech declaring “long live a free Catalonia”.
It was after this that the police drone’s controllers switched their attention to the column of Puigdemont’s Junts Party associates making their way towards the parliament, while he made his escape in a white car — a getaway vehicle that had allegedly been organised with the assistance of three off-duty Mossos officers.
The 25-page report, sent to an investigating judge, portrayed the force as victims of a strategy of “confusion” by Puigdemont’s supporters.
“That Mr Puigdemont returned to Spain and then fled was not contemplated as a possibility,” a letter signed by Eduard Sallent, the force’s chief commissioner, revealed.
The key moments identified by the report took place between 9.03am and 9.10am. The drone hovering above the area observed Puigdemont leave the stage and enter one of two tents set up behind.
The tents were “[confined] by metal fences and protected by around 100 people who formed rows and who kept their arms together as a protective barrier,” the report said. Five minutes later, when Puigdemont was out of sight of anyone, there were “two simultaneous movements”.
A white vehicle ascended the ramp of an underground car park, while one of Puigdemont’s security detail made a space in the fencing to allow the Junts leader to reach the car.
“At that moment the drone changes location and is directed to offer images of the politicians and authorities who were moving towards the parliament,” Sallent said in his letter. Less than a minute later the drone returns to focus on the fencing and “it was verified that the white vehicle was no longer located there”.
Puigdemont’s actual movements from the tent to the car — having removed his jacket and pulled on a cap — were only being followed by the single plain-clothes agent mixed in the crowd.
The rest of the police force “were convinced that Mr Puigdemont was among the politicians and authorities and that he was walking along the central trunk of the Lluís Companys promenade” towards the parliament, the report said. Everything was designed to “distract police attention,” it added.
The report also revealed that the regional police did not have the co-operation of Josep Rull, the president of the parliamentand a close ally of Puigdemont. Twenty-four hours before the investiture, permission was denied for police to access the chamber and search its premises.
In conclusion, the report stated that Puigdemont’s escape occurred “thanks to a diversionary manoeuvre developed with the involuntary co-operation of thousands of people and the organised activity of a group of close collaborators.”
“The scenario that finally occurred escapes all rational or political logic,” Sallent said.