The Mossos d’Esquadra have arrested two men, aged 20 and 25, accused of stealing 485 metres of copper cable from the conventional railway line between Lleida and Tarragona, at kilometre 22.8, in the municipality of Juneda, in Les Garrigues, according to SEGRE. The alert came in at 2.50 am on Saturday. The theft affected essential parts of the signalling system and caused serious damage to the infrastructure, disrupting safety systems and train traffic, according to the same report.

Four days later, on Tuesday morning, conventional-gauge trains between Lleida and Zaragoza were again delayed by another cable theft, this time between Raimat and Almacelles, in the Segrià, Adif reported, as picked up by La Vanguardia. It is the latest in a series of thefts that has kept another Lleida line, the one to Tarragona, closed since the summer.

A car stuck in a field

When officers arrived in the early hours, the site’s security guards told them they had seen a vehicle stuck in a field trying to manoeuvre its way out, according to SEGRE. On spotting the guards, the two occupants fled on foot across the fields. Inside the vehicle, the guards found bolt cutters and track signalling cable.

Using the guards’ description, the Mossos set up an operation to find the two men. Shortly afterwards, a patrol stopped a vehicle with four occupants in Juneda. The two men in the back seats matched the description and were covered in earth and mud, as if they had crossed the fields, according to SEGRE. On identifying them, officers established that one of them was directly linked to the stuck vehicle.

The Mossos arrested them as suspected perpetrators of a theft offence. The next day they were brought before the duty court in Lleida, which released them on charges with an obligation to report periodically to the court, according to the same newspaper. The two other occupants of the vehicle, women aged 44 and 58, are under investigation for possibly assisting in the theft. According to Crónica Global, the two men were taken before the duty investigating court in Lleida, and the complaint filed by the infrastructure manager describes serious damage to the signalling.

According to the Mossos, the cooperation of the security guards was «clau» (key) to arresting the two men, as reported by La Mañana.

485 or 300 metres

SEGRE and La Mañana, which reproduce the Mossos’ information, put the stolen cable at 485 metres. Crónica Global speaks of 300 metres of copper cable and places the theft in the early hours of Saturday 10 October. The rest of the facts match in all three versions.

The Plan Via

The Mossos point out in their statement that they have activated the Plan Via against metal-related crime on the railways, to prevent metal thefts and combat their sale, according to SEGRE.

The plan’s results released by the Mossos since its launch include 36 arrests and six people reported or under investigation, according to Crónica Global. The operations have led to two people being remanded in custody, three court orders barring people from railway facilities and seven reports for suspected administrative offences.

The Mossos and Adif have held a first coordination meeting under the plan, attended by the top commanders of the Catalan police and Adif security officials, according to the same outlet. They agreed to strengthen direct communication channels to shorten the time between detecting a theft and the arrival of patrols, and the measures include cameras at sensitive points, new fencing to make it harder to reach the tracks, and more surveillance.

The plan also targets the market for stolen metal. At a meeting in Sabadell, the Mossos brought together representatives of 120 waste management companies to ask them to flag suspicious transactions, and the police plan to step up checks at those businesses, according to Crónica Global. The Mossos have set up a phone line and an email address for these companies to report possible irregularities.

A wave of thefts

In the first half of this year, Adif filed 409 complaints over thefts of different types of railway cable, almost as many as in the whole of 2025, a record year for cable theft since 2018, according to La Vanguardia.

In Catalonia, Adif recorded 192 incidents between June and September, and from the start of the year to the date of that report 320 incidents had been reported, including thefts on the rail network, on sections under construction and from the operator’s warehouses, according to Crónica Global. Adif considers these thefts the leading cause of disruption to the Rodalies service. In the Barcelona area, the operator has set aside about 20 million euros to replace some 70 kilometres of stolen cable, according to the same outlet. Among the sensitive points, Adif singles out the area around Estació de França and, above all, the track-doubling works between Parets del Vallès and La Garriga and their extension to the Montcada-Parets section.

Crónica Global stresses that, according to the Mossos and Adif, the impact of these crimes exceeds the value of the material stolen, because the damage affects how the network works and passengers’ journeys.

The same line, closed until 2027

The Lleida-Tarragona line is still suffering from earlier thefts that keep it closed. The first was on 22 June, between L’Espluga de Francolí and Montblanc stations, when the theft of a live cable from the electrification system started a fire that spread through the signalling and traffic management installations, according to SEGRE. The Montblanc interlocking, the station’s communications equipment and part of the cabling between Montblanc and Vilaverd were put out of action.

On the night of 20 July there was another serious incident between Les Borges Blanques and Riu Milans, also caused by the theft of overhead line cabling, according to the same newspaper. The cut cable came loose, touched the safety installations and started a fire that reached the section’s communications and control installations. The Vinaixa interlocking and its systems were left completely inoperative.

On 21 July Adif detected outages at electrical substations and a first fire in a signalling hut at Vinaixa station, according to La Mañana. Its technicians found this was due to the theft of electrification cable and the cutting of the fibre-optic line. The fire later affected the Vinaixa-Riu Milans and Vinaixa-Canal d’Urgell sections. Adif then spoke of damage of «molta gravetat» (great seriousness) to systems that are «equipaments fonamentals» (essential equipment) for traffic regulation and safety, and warned that recovery would be complex and long, according to the same newspaper. At the end of August, more than a month later, Adif still had no forecast for restoring traffic.

Since then, anyone travelling from Lleida to Barcelona via Tarragona or Valls on the R13 and R14 lines has had to cover the section between Lleida-Pirineus and La Plana-Picamoixons by bus, according to La Mañana. Only the train between Lleida and Les Borges Blanques was restored. The alternative arrangements put in place by Adif have directly affected passengers, according to SEGRE, which counts two thefts that left the Vinaixa and Montblanc installations out of service.

Adif expects the works to last until the end of the year, at an estimated cost of 14 million euros because of the destruction of traffic management systems and other essential installations, according to La Mañana. No trains have run on that section since the thefts, and normal service is expected to resume in early 2027, according to SEGRE.

Delays between Raimat and Almacelles

Tuesday’s theft between Raimat and Almacelles affected the conventional-gauge line between Lleida and Zaragoza. Adif staff were working that same morning to replace the material as soon as possible, according to La Vanguardia.

What is not on record

None of the sources cited gives the value of the copper stolen in Juneda, how long traffic on the Lleida-Tarragona line was disrupted by that theft, or whether anyone has been arrested over the Raimat-Almacelles theft. Nor is the cost of the repair in Juneda on record. The sources do not identify the two men arrested or the two women under investigation.

Sources and verification

Information based on SEGRE, 14 October 2026 and La Mañana, 14 October 2026, which reproduce the Mossos statement; on Crónica Global, 14 October 2026; La Vanguardia, 14 October 2026; SEGRE, 8 October 2026; and La Mañana, 28 August 2026. The sources disagree on the length of cable stolen in Juneda: 485 metres according to the Mossos, as reported by SEGRE and La Mañana, and 300 metres according to Crónica Global.