Mossos agent amnestied in digital impersonation case in L'Hospitalet

The only Mossos d'Esquadra officer charged in a digital impersonation case targeting pro-independence groups has been amnestied in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat. A local court determined that the events were connected to the independence process and fell within the timeframe set by the amnesty law, according to judicial documents accessed by VilaWeb.

However, some organisations affected by these impersonations are not pro-independence and have no connection to the independence process. This specific complaint was filed by La Forja, a pro-independence organisation. The judicial text simply states, "The facts would not fall within the exclusion criteria established by the law," without further explanation.

Impersonation Scheme Uncovered

Alerta Solidària filed a complaint after an investigation by La Directa revealed that the Mossos d'Esquadra and the Generalitat's Centre for Telecommunications and Information Technology (CTTI) had digitally impersonated several pro-independence organisations to obtain internal documents irregularly. Both the Mossos and the CTTI denied any spying or identity impersonation. This complaint, the only one that progressed, was lodged by a representative of La Forja, one of the affected groups. The officer involved was also the only one disciplined.

The events took place in January 2020. Several social and pro-independence groups received falsified emails, often from unknown senders, clearly intended to access internal information. This practice continued for months, affecting organisations such as the CUP, Arran, La Forja, the Tenants' Union, libertarian groups, and VilaWeb.

According to Alerta Solidària, the impersonation mechanism in several cases involved unknown individuals directly accessing the servers of the CUP and Arran. They took control of some email accounts not regularly used by the organisations. From these accounts, messages were sent to other organisations and spokespeople requesting information, including meeting agendas, mobilisation plans, organisational charts, statutes, and assembly documents. The most obvious case affected La Forja. Members of the organisation received emails from other members and sectoral groups, who had been impersonated, asking for access to specific documents.

Detecting the Source

Following suspicions, La Forja created a system to detect the IP addresses of those accessing this information. Those requesting documents had to enter a cloud storage system. This allowed La Forja to retrieve the IP addresses, revealing that the devices attempting the impersonation belonged to the Mossos and the CTTI.

Alerta Solidària has criticised the lack of institutional response throughout the case. "A deafening silence was imposed on this issue from the very first minute. The Parliament declined to take a position, and it was only included as a secondary topic in the investigation committee on political espionage," they stated in a press release.

"Thanks to the complaint filed against the Mossos, we learned about the management by the Internal Affairs Division. They informed the court that a single agent had taken the initiative to create and maintain the illegitimate conversations with numerous fake emails. The punishment for a clearly illegal activity, supposedly carried out against the orders of superiors, who were incredibly absolved of all blame, was to transfer the sole agent, TIP 15718, to Manresa police station."

They added: "On 20 January, this single agent gave evasive answers in the Catalan Parliament's investigation committee, behind closed doors and with measures to protect his identity. The worst part is that no police or political official has ever given credible explanations about this matter, nor do we have guarantees that it will not happen again." Alerta Solidària has filed an appeal against the court's decision.

VilaWeb's Experience

One of the cases directly affected VilaWeb. The same modus operandi was detected as in other instances, but the IP address could not be identified. An illegal, free online programme called Emkai.cz was used, and the email header was falsified to send a message from [email protected]. Lluna Berlanga, then spokesperson for La Forja, and a former spokesperson for the organisation received an email from this address requesting information about La Forja's structure and political programme for a supposed journalistic report on youth organisations. Upon receiving the email, Alerta Solidària contacted VilaWeb, confirming the newspaper had not sent it.