The judge of the National Court María Tardón has agreed to investigate irregular mass entry into Ceuta on July 30 and 31 as it is a serious attack against the territorial integrity of Spain and affects the peace or independence of the State.
The instructor has declared the jurisdiction of the National Court to investigate the massive irregular entry into Ceuta from Morocco on July 30 and 31, as these are crimes that compromise the peace or independence of the State, against the rights of foreign citizens in connection with reckless homicides, as well as criminal organization.
In the order he explains that the Penal Code establishes within the crime against peace "illegal acts or those that are not duly authorized" that expose "Spanish people to experience humiliation or reprisals against their persons or property."
The judge maintains that "we are faced with criminal conduct allegedly committed abroad that has seriously attacked the territorial integrity of Spain, which is guaranteed in article 2 of the Constitution, using massive entry into our country for this purpose, to which irregular migratory flows have been added that have seriously affected the lives and rights of the citizens of Ceuta."
Last Friday the Prosecutor's Office had reported in favor of the jurisdiction of the National Court although it focused the possible responsibility on a criminal organization. It is true that it already pointed to the possibility, as the investigation progressed, that a crime against the peace or independence of the State could have been committed.
In her order of admission of jurisdiction, which has a report from the Prosecutor's Office favorable to investigating these events, the instructor includes the report of the National Center for Immigration and Borders (CENIF) of the Police on the development of the events, which shows that these were not actions of an incidental, occasional or spontaneous nature, but rather it was a process in which the immigration purpose operated only as formal coverage.
It indicates that in the phase prior to the mass entry on July 30, a sustained and growing situation developed in the entries to Ceuta, while highlighting the singular importance of social networks for the mass propagation of the call.
The judge considers that prior to the 30th, the risk of mass entry was already detected, which was alerted in a police report on July 29, one day before the events. In this alert, the judge warns, the forecast of an extreme risk for a scenario of swimming entries plus jumping over the fence in a “coordinated manner” was already stated.
The phase in which the mass mobilization occurred, according to the order, reveals waves of different intensity and profile, which caused a collapse of the response capabilities of the Spanish border control system and a massive violation of Spain's territorial sovereignty.
Finally, in the phase after the massive entry, the resolution continues, there were “various subsequent destabilizing effects on Spain's response capabilities system that are still evolving.” These consequences influenced different levels such as Public Security, Health, Social Services or Defense. There were also other effects of an international or geopolitical profile, effects on domestic politics “supported and amplified by some cases of disinformation and counternarrative.”
The judge also states in her order that access to Ceuta those days occurred through different waves of people of different types pushed with “absolute contempt for the lives of the most vulnerable people” who comprised them. It maintains that these people were led to jump into the sea “without preparation, provided with inadequate clothing that could hinder their movements in the water and equipped with precarious elements for buoyancy.”
"A clear and undoubted favorable management of the process has also been evidenced from the territory of the Kingdom of Morocco, in the Fnideq beach itself and places surrounding said space in the city of Castillejos. It is evidenced by the behavior of the Moroccan Security Forces, "profusely" documented in the police report, as well as through social networks.
In his opinion, the Moroccan police's attitude of "permissiveness" was one of "active guidance", as also defined by the Police. He notes in the evidence provided how the uniformed police themselves "are giving instructions to the people who illegally crossed the border, to direct them through which to carry out the crossing, to overcome the existing obstacles in said access and even organizing access to the area that leads to Fnideq Beach, and already within its own waters." Added to this - according to the order - are the existence of agents that stimulate the mass of people entering Spanish territory.
Tardón considers that behind this action there was an intention to attack the State, violating its territorial integrity, "as pointed out by the President of the Government who, during his visit to Ceuta on July 31, 2026, defined the events as "an attack, a violation of the territorial integrity of Spain."
And this, through a massive migratory flow that constitutes one of the characteristic methods of the "hybrid war" or "gray zone", with the aim of altering the life and rights of Spanish citizens, specifically, of an entire autonomous city."
The judge recalls that the use of migratory flows is one of the methods used in “hybrid war” or “gray zone” actions in which attacks on States can occur, “on many occasions combining calls on the Internet with disinformation on social networks, and which, as occurs in the present case and is usually common, are committed abroad, so the jurisdiction to investigate them corresponds to the National Court.”
It considers that the facts fit perfectly into the risk assumptions provided for in the National Security Strategy, which states: “The autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, due to their geographical location on the African continent and the specificity of their Spanish and European border, require special attention from the General Administration of the State to guarantee the security and well-being of their citizens.” “Precisely,” the judge concludes, “because they may be subject to the use of irregular migratory flows to destabilize National Security.”
On the other hand, Tardón believes that the deaths of 83 people while trying to swim across the border must be investigated. The order reports that these people lost their lives due to drowning or crushing while swimming from Moroccan territory, where they were encouraged to jump into the sea, “with disregard for their physical circumstances and without taking into account the vulnerability of many of them.”
Those who instigated the crossing did so without taking into account that there were elderly people, families with children, some babies in the arms of their parents, "providing them with flimsy buoyancy instruments, some of them little more than toys, so that in this way they entered en masse on the Spanish beach of El Tarajal, with the dramatic consequence that they lost their lives on said journey."
