f!i al LI W , isle al ID L.-.- z Institut Europeen F71 d'Administration Publique I*, Ar *. European Institute of Public Administration Controlling Organised Crime: Organisational Changes in the Law Enforcement and Prosecution Services of the EU Member States Final Report on the Research Project 98/FAL/145 funded by the EU 'Falcone' Programme and the Dutch Ministry of Justice (WODC) Monica den Boer Patrick Doelle Country Report: Spain Oscar Jaime-Jimenez, Laia Moreno and Fernando Reinares Table of Contents 1. The law enforcement agencies in Spain 2. The public prosecution service in Spain 5 3. Organised crime in Spain 7 4. Law enforcement units to fight organised crime 8 5. Public prosecution units to fight organised crime 11 6. Multidisciplinary integrated teams 12 7. International contact points 12 A. National Forces. 13 B. State, Regional and Local Forces. 13 8. Supervision and control 13 List of abbreviations 14 Notes 15 1 1. THE LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES IN SPAIN The national Spanish police system (Fuerzas y Cuerpos de Seguridad del Estado, (FCSE)) is today formed by two central forces: the Cuerpo Nacional de Policia (CNP), a fully civilian police agency, and the Guardia Civil, under a military statute. During the 1980s, other forces which have competence in the Autonomous Communities (Comunidades Autonomas) and are under control of the regional governments were added to this traditional scheme: the Basque police (Ertzaintza) and the Catalan police (Mossos d'Esquadra). Both of them have as their main goal the assumption of the FCSE competences. Other Autonomous Communities have made a request to the central government to control some units of the national police forces. This process is still under way, but will probably finish in the next few years. At local level there are the local police, whose competences have been growing steadily during the last decades. Finally, there is the Servicio de Vigilancia Aduanera (SEVA), which comes under the Ministry of Economy; its main task is the fight against contraband trade. In fact, there is not a police model, but a police system. The political transition after the dictatorship adopted the form of an "agreed split with the dictatorship". It meant, on the one hand, that the political rules changed radically, political parties and trade unions were legalised, and a parliament was established that could foster a western-style of democracy; on the other hand, the monarchy remained and the administrative structures were left practically untouched. The state bureaucracy, including the army, and the old security structures and agencies, remained virtually unchanged, with the same human resources and police ethos. In 1977, a general political agreement among the most important political parties known as Pactos de la Moncloa, provided the impetus for a vague reform of the police, although this lacked specific far-reaching goals. The main and immediate aim of the political opposition was the expulsion of those members of the police forces who had taken part in political repression. Nevertheless, almost the entire structure and personnel remained with some "minor" structural changes. Only a few officials involved in the struggle against political opposition were actually dismissed. The new police legislation was to a great extent the outcome of agreements among different political sensibilities. However, the influence of the military sector and of— for the most part the conservative — members of parliament was a decisive factor in holding back and postponing the restructuring of the police forces. Changes were introduced slowly and without great conviction since there was no defined model of what a police force should be in a democratic environment. In the new legislation, innovative elements were combined with others that served merely to perpetuate the characteristics of a militarised police force. This resulted in the drafting of legal texts which were difficult to understand or, in many cases, contradictory. The Police Law, passed in 1978, was the immediate outcome of the Moncloa agreements: The influence of the army on the police structure decreased, but it was still very important. Before this basic reform, most of the officers of the PolicM Armada (renamed in 1978 as Policia Nacional, and in 1986, Cuerpo Nacional de Policia) came from the army. The military officers stayed on as members of the armed forces and received only a brief training. After the 1978 law, most of the new officers came from a specific police academy, and only a few military officers selected by the Ministry of the Interior were allowed to join the police. However, training continued to be largely of a military type and given by army personnel. The most immediate significant change was that military courts no longer dealt 2 Spain with activities relating to the freedom of speech, and the police forces ceased to be protec- ted by military legislation. In 1986, new police legislation, the Ley Organica de Fuerzas y Cuerpos de Seguridad del Estado (LOFCSE) — State Police Law — was approved. Finally, thanks to this law, the non-paramilitary police forces rationalised their organisation. But one of the most important outcomes of this new law was that the Cuerpo Nacional de Policia (CNP) became a fully civil corps, abandoning its undermined military status.' A few years later, in 1992, the Public Order Law of 1959 was abolished by applying the Ley de Proteccion de la Seguridad Ciudadana — Protection of Public Safety Law. , The current police system is the outcome of the lack of a political willingness to apply structural solutions. The creation of the Ertzaintza and the political weakness of central governments in respect to the Basque Country and Catalonia, have hindered the design of a consensual police model. The maintenance of a stable situation was the priority, instead of trying to increase the levels of police efficiency. The final outcome was the superimposition of structures without effective functional and territorial coordination. Despite the 1986 LOFCSE, many crucial problems there still remain and these have increased during recent years. This law established the CNP's dependence on the Ministry of Interior and the Guardia Civil's double dependence on the same ministry and the Ministry of Defence. Despite the fact that the functions assigned to each of the forces are clearly indicated in the legal text, there are mutual accusations of meddling and conflicts over many and different issues. There took place an expansion of the Guardia Civil activities since the 1980s into areas traditionally assigned to the CNP or the SEVA. This conflict affects organised crime because the Guardia Civil has important competences in the fight against smuggling and has created important anti-drug units. The presence of terrorism in Spain during the political transition and consolidation, strongly influenced the security agenda. Most of resources have been invested in this area, leaving in second place topics such as public safety, drugs and organised crime. It was the decline of terrorist activity which stimulated the slow change in the priority given to the internal security agenda. Nowadays, many of the original problems are still present, for instance, the current democratic regime has still not defined the real military or civil status of the Guardia Civil. 3 Few changes have been introduced. The confusion is still prompted by its double dependence on the Ministry of Defence, for administrative and organisational issues, and the Ministry of the Interior for operational activities. Only the practical and operational changes are significant, but the essential structure, organisation and decision-making procedures have remained essentially unaltered despite the fact that the General-Director is a civilian and the general staff is formed by officers of the agency. In 1995, the Ministry of Justice and Interior tried to impose substantial structural changes at an organisational level, but the critical political situation and the resistance of the organisational structure of the paramilitary agency did not allow for far-reaching reforms. The structure of the CNP, like the Guardia Civil, was militarised during the Franco period and was part of the armed forces. After the political transition, this force changed its name to Policia Nacional — National Police — and the 1978 Police Law introduced provisions which formed the basis of its future evolution. In 1986, the police agency structure was transformed. The plain clothes police agency known as the Cuerpo Superior de Policia — Higher Police Force — which was in charge of the direction and coordination of police services, intelligence and investigations, was merged with the uniformed patrolling agency of the Policia Nacional whose main functions were to assist the Cuerpo Superior de Policia and to maintain and re-establish public order, in order to form the Cuerpo Nacional de Policia or CNP. 3 Oscar Jaime-Jimenez, Laia Moreno and Fernando Reinares The coordination between the two most important state security forces, the CNP and the Guardia Civil, were established at the highest level in the Ministry of the Interior. In 1994, before the radical transformation of the structure of the Ministry — i.e. the merging of the Ministries of the Interior and Justice' — the State Secretary of Security, a high-level political appointee, was in charge of the Director-General of the Policia Nacional and Guardia Civil. At a provincial level, the Gobernador Civil — Civil Governor — (today called Subdelegado del Gobierno) was in charge of the coordination and he was the commander of both forces. After Franco's regime, two of the historical territories (Autonomous Communities), the Basque Country, from the very beginning, and then Catalonia, were willing to assume internal security functions.' The Basque political establishment thought that the first and main step towards solving the terrorist problem was to form a Basque police agency, which was close to the community and able to better understand the problems and points of view of the population.