Police operation under way in Malaga and across Spain as officers swoop on neo-Nazi members

Police have swooped on alleged members of neo-Nazi gangs and raided properties across Spain, including Malaga.

National Police and the Mossos d'Esquadra launched an operation in the early hours of this Tuesday morning (17 October) across premises in the province, as well as Catalonia, Madrid, Lugo and Toledo.

Police said the operation focused on members of Combat 18, a criminal group associated with national socialism and white supremacism. However, details are confidential as the operation is still under way.

There were raids across six Catalan municipalities: Barcelona, Navarcles, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Sentmenat (Barcelona), Lloret de Mar (Girona) and Mollerussa (Lleida), as well as Arganda del Rey (Madrid), Talavera de la Reina (Toledo), Lugo and Malaga, according to sources from Mossos d'Esquadra.

The name of the neo-Nazi group bears the number 18 for the first and eighth letters of the alphabet, which correspond to the initials A and H, of Adolf Hitler. The organisation was founded in Britain in 1992 and later spread to several countries, including Germany, where it was banned in 2020.

Since its inception, the group has been vocal in its calls for violence against immigrants, ethnic minorities and people politically aligned to the left or linked to any LGTB movement. Its logo is a skull derived from that used by the third Panzer division of the Waffen-SS.