A man who was threatening patrol officers with a knife was subdued and deterred by a Local Police officer in Torrevieja, who subsequently arrested him with the assistance of an off-duty officer. The officer was forced to deploy his service weapon. The incident took place on the Juan Aparicio seafront promenade last Thursday, April 2nd.
The patrol made an attempt to remove a group of vendors who were selling unlicensed products from the area between the Burger King restaurant and its terrace at approximately 7:30 p.m. The vendors had relocated to that location when they observed the police patrol approaching and were bearing their merchandise on their backs, as they typically continue to sell there, albeit with slightly more difficulty.
A moment of anxiety
Upon their return to the surveillance car at the front of the promenade, the local officers observed that all four tires of the vehicle had been punctured. The individual responsible for the tyres’ damage was identified by a witness. The officers attempted to arrest him. The individual, who had been previously identified by the Local Police for his involvement in numerous incidents in the past few weeks and his association with unlicensed street vending, wielded the same knife that he had used to slash the tyres and threatened the officers.
The policeman, with an exclusive deterrent objective, reached for his regulation weapon and wielded it at that moment. He, his colleague, and an off-duty civil guard were able to subdue and arrest the aggressor, also using a chair from the terraces.
The individual who was apprehended was held in custody until he was brought before a judge and subsequently released from the Palace of Justice premises. He was charged with severe damage, disobedience, and resistance to authority.
Local Police and USECIC
Over the past month, the Guardia Civil’s Citizen Security Unit (USECIC) and local police have increased their operations along Torrevieja’s seafront promenades in order to seize suspected counterfeit products from unlicensed vendors. The confiscation of thousands of kilograms of footwear and apparel has been the outcome of these operations; however, no arrests have been made. Hundreds of Senegalese migrants in Torrevieja and other regions along the Alicante coast rely on street vending, which is commonly referred to as “top manta,” for their livelihood. The campaign’s objective is to discourage this practice.
The local authorities are still being urged by shopkeepers to intervene in what they perceive as unjust competition from street vendors. The addition of new officers last summer resulted in an increase in surveillance, which enabled a nearly continuous patrol throughout the majority of the day and well into the night. The vendors immediately depart the area upon observing the police presence and seek refuge in the passageway between the entrances to bars and restaurants and their outdoor seating areas. However, they do not vanish entirely; they resume marketing their wares immediately thereafter.
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The large signs that warn of penalties for buyers have been largely ineffective. In the presence of warnings of penalties in the thousands of euros, goods are still being sold, and there is a substantial increase in the number of shoppers.
There is no record of a single administrative fine being issued for the purchase of allegedly counterfeit clothing or footwear since the Torrevieja City Council established the counterfeit products in 2024, despite warnings and social media campaigns. It is nearly impossible to verify this transgression, as it must be documented at the time of purchase, and the Local Police are not authorised to conduct such interventions in plainclothes. The municipality has incorporated this infraction into its local ordinance.
Improved from the summer of 2025
The Local Police have been able to patrol the promenades during their regular schedules; however, they will be unable to sustain this for an extended period, according to police sources. Five of the six patrols that were on duty were required to be deployed in order to conduct the most recent operation, which was exclusively conducted by Local Police officers. This implies that the majority of officers are concentrated on a single task, while only one patrol, with emergency support from the Civil Guard, is responsible for patrolling the remainder of the city, which has a population that exceeds 300,000 this Easter. If the City Council wishes to preserve the tranquil atmosphere along the promenade, the Local Police will need to add additional shifts to this surveillance. Sales have remained virtually unchanged.
Interventions on the promenade must always be executed with meticulous attention to their consequences. A chase or stampede, as occurred between 2011 and 2014, can result in hazardous situations and evacuation problems in an area that is already overcrowded with outdoor seating. Thousands of individuals congregate in the same area of the seafront. The City Council decided to remove 20 palm trees without replacing them before Easter in order to increase the promenade space and prevent the trees from collapsing. This decision was made without requiring restaurant and bar owners to relinquish any of their public property.
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