Spanish government announces seizure of 100,000 1-O posters

BarcelonaSpanish PM Mariano Rajoy announced this afternoon that the Guardia Civil has seized 100,000 posters promoting the 1-O referendum. The announcement came after officers of Spain’s Guardia Civil entered three print shops this Friday: Artyplan, in Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Marc Martí, in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat and Gràfiques Gongraf, in Badalona. The first raid began on Thursday evening, when several officers were on patrol in an industrial estate in Pla Sant Feliu, home to Artyplan and two other printers.

On Friday, before visiting Artyplan at around two o’clock, they inspected the goods being transported in vans parked outside the printers’ warehouses in Sant Feliu and at the roundabouts located at the entrance to the industrial estate. The Guardia Civil also paid a visit to Marc Martí, in L’Hospitalet. Finally, they showed up at Gràfiques Gongraf in Badalona, in the Grand Land business park. At all three print shops, the officers were searching for material related to 1-O, as they did last week in Constantí, near Tarragona.

Sant Feliu

The Guardia Civil left Artyplan shortly before five in the afternoon, some three hours after entering the premises. Although neither the company nor the Guardia Civil have made an official statement concerning the events, sources close to the company maintain that the agents left without finding any evidence which might link the business to the preparation of the referendum. The large police presence in the Pla de Sant Feliu industrial estate this Thursday attracted around a hundred protestors from the pro-independence left, who taunted the police with chants such as "where are the ballot papers?" and "have a nice day!”.

Hospitalet

According to sources close to Marc Martí in Hospitalet de Llobregat, the Guardia Civil left the premises shortly before four in the afternoon, having failed to find any material related to the 1-O referendum. Although Guardia Civil officers spent all morning near the printer’s premises, the search itself lasted only one hour, beginning once the ten officers had received the search warrant granting them access. While the search was in progress, a group of pro-referendum protestors gathered outside the company to observe the goings-on. They chanted "we will vote!", as the officers left the company’s premises.

Badalona

The recent police operation comes a week after Guardia Civil officers searched Indugraf, a print shop in Constantí, over the company’s alleged involvement in organizing the 1 October referendum, although no material of any kind was found linking them to the vote.