Spain spy agency warned country of Ceuta border breach plans before migrant stampede, declassified files show

Spain’s national intelligence agency issued multiple warnings before the Ceuta border crisis about a potential mass crossing of migrants from Morocco into the Spanish exclave in late July, according to declassified documents released by the government on Wednesday.The trove of 40 documents, which includes alerts, intelligence reports, charts and communications from multiple law enforcement and intelligence agencies, appears to undermine what Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has said about the level of prior warning the government had before the sudden influx took place.Major protests in Spain have taken place in response to the migrant arrivals, with critics blaming Sánchez’s government for the crisis.On July 29, a day before more than 72,000 people began pouring into the Spanish city neighboring Morocco, Spain’s spy agency, the National Intelligence Center (CNI), sent an alert via WhatsApp to the Spanish government’s delegation in Ceuta about calls on social media “for an assault on the fence and by sea tomorrow at 8 p.m.”“There are two different groups with a total of 180,000 followers,” the declassified WhatsApp message from the intelligence agency said, “just to give you an idea of its scale.”A note by Spain’s spy agency that day to Moroccan intelligence agencies warned of plans on social media for migrants to enter Ceuta on July 30 by climbing a border fence separating the exclave from Morocco, or by swimming around it, the documents show.It mentioned that migrants might take advantage of Morocco’s national Throne Day, celebrated every year on July 30.That same day, Spain’s national intelligence agency issued similar warnings about “several groups on Facebook and WhatsApp encouraging these attempts” in messages to Spain’s Civil Guard police force.Morocco’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press on Wednesday about the report.On Wednesday, Sánchez rejected the idea ...