Madrid boosts police patrols after spate of gang violence
Madrid, Feb 10 (EFE).- Authorities in the Spanish capital Madrid have boosted police patrols following a sudden rise in gang violence and stabbings that left two dead, including a 15-year-old, over the weekend.
Over 500 police officers will from Thursday be deployed to patrol Madrid and some of its outlying satellite cities and suburbs in response to the surge in gang-related violent crime, Mercedes González, the central Spanish government’s delegate to the Madrid region, said.
The city was left shocked last weekend after fatal machete attacks killed a 15-year-old outside a popular nightclub in the city center and a 25-year-old in the southern district of Usera, both of which were attributed to clashes between the Dominicans Don’t Play and Trinitarios gangs.
At least two other stabbings – from a total of seven between Friday and Sunday – were attributed to gang violence.
González said the extra police patrols would continue until the “criminal activity of these violence groups ends.”
They will focus on areas of the city reporting an increase of gang activity and delinquency, the majority of which are lower income neighborhoods.
The government official added that the gangs, most of them of Latin American origin, are recruiting members as young as 11.
Other gangs with notable presence in Madrid include the Latin Kings and Los Ñetas.
Police have detained 11 suspected members of the Dominicans Don’t Play gang in Madrid and Toledo, three of whom were allegedly involved in the murder of the 25-year-old man in Usera on Saturday.
Violent crime is rare in the Spanish capital. In 2021, there were a total of 34 homicides in a region of just over 6.5 million people, according to police figures. EFE
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