Image copyright EPA Image caption Protesters arrived at the Unipost offices in Terrassa during the day

Spanish police have discovered a mass of documents directly related to a banned Catalan independence referendum scheduled for 1 October.

Early on Tuesday, the Guardia Civil arrived at offices of Spain's biggest private delivery company, Unipost, in the Catalan city of Terrassa.

Catalan police officers scuffled with pro-secession protesters trying to block the street outside.

Catalan leaders are defying a court order to halt the vote.

They are trying to organise the referendum, despite a series of attempts by the national government to prevent it going ahead.

The Madrid government has been backed up by Spain's Constitutional Court, which suspended the referendum law passed by the Catalan parliament.

Some 7.5 million people live in Spain's well-off north-eastern region. Although opinion polls have been rare, one survey commissioned by the Catalan government in July suggested that 41% of voters backed independence while 49% were opposed.

Stacks of boxes of envelopes found

One of the most important aims for the national authorities is to stop voting cards being sent out in the first place.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Some 200 people prevented a judicial secretary from getting through

As the police raid continued throughout the day in Terrassa, to the north-west of Barcelona, little was said about what had been seized. But it eventually became clear that they had succeeded in finding some of the most significant election material to date.

Among the documents were stacks of boxes containing hundreds of envelopes with the Catalan government's logo. The envelopes were suspected of containing voting cards.

In earlier raids, only posters and other promotional election literature had been found.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Police had tried to negotiate with the protesters

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Scuffles broke out

Image copyright Reuters Image caption The protesters were finally removed

A local judge in Terrassa authorised police to seize the envelopes and open one to assess whether a company official may have been involved in "misappropriating public money" for the 1 October vote.

Up to 200 local people gathered outside the Unipost offices, placing flowers on police vehicles. For more than two hours they stopped a local judiciary official from entering the building. Catalan police eventually intervened to let the official through.

As the standoff went on, the mayors of three small Catalan towns appeared in court on suspicion of helping the vote take place.

Spanish prosecutors have opened an investigation into more than 700 local mayors who have backed the referendum. If voting does go ahead, it will take place in Catalonia's schools and municipal buildings.

The Spanish government has also moved to take control of the region's finances, in an attempt to stop public money being spent on the vote.

A deadline for the Catalan leadership to abandon the vote has run out, with Spain preparing to take over funding of most public services, including the payment of workers' salaries.

However, the vice-president of the Catalan government, Oriol Junqueras, went to the Supreme Court on Tuesday to appeal against the decision. Accusing the national government of irresponsible behaviour, he said he was confident the appeal would in effect suspend Madrid's move.

The Catalan administration had all the resources it needed to meet its obligations, he said. </s> Spain’s paramilitary national police force says its agents have confiscated more than 1.3 million posters, flyers and pamphlets promoting the planned independence referendum by Catalonia’s regional government.

The Civil Guard said the campaign literature was seized on Sunday during raids of an unnamed business in Barcelona province that distributes advertising material.

The police force says the trove takes the number of items endorsing the independence referendum that have been confiscated to 1.5 million.

The Spanish government has vowed to stop the planned Oct. 1 secession vote, saying it’s illegal. But Catalonia’s leaders have pushed ahead even though Spain’s Constitutional Court suspended a regional law that paved the way for the referendum and has agreed to review the vote’s constitutionality. </s> Spain's paramilitary national police force says its agents have confiscated more than 1.3 million posters, flyers and pamphlets promoting the planned independence referendum by Catalonia's regional government.

The Civil Guard said the campaign literature was seized on Sunday during raids of an unnamed business in Barcelona province that distributes advertising material.

The police force says the trove takes the number of items endorsing the independence referendum that have been confiscated to 1.5 million.

The Spanish government has vowed to stop the planned Oct. 1 secession vote, saying it's illegal. But Catalonia's leaders have pushed ahead even though Spain's Constitutional Court suspended a regional law that paved the way for the referendum and has agreed to review the vote's constitutionality. </s> The Wall Street Journal: Catalan officials arrested in Spain ahead of banned independence vote

Early Wednesday morning, Spain’s Civil Guard police forces searched 22 properties, including offices of Catalonia’s regional administration in Barcelona, and arrested an official in charge of the region’s economy, Josep Maria Jové, said spokesman. </s> MADRID: Spain’s public prosecutor on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) ordered a criminal probe of over 700 Catalan mayors who are cooperating with an October 1 independence referendum deemed illegal by Madrid.

The move increases the pressure on Catalan officials just one day before the pro-separatist camp officially kicks off its referendum campaign in the Mediterranean port of Tarragona.

Furious at the decision to instigate a probe, Catalan municipal associations called on all the region’s mayors to protest in Barcelona on Saturday to show their “rejection of a Spanish judicial system that goes after the media, ballot papers, ballot boxes… and now mayors.”

The prosecutors’ office ordered the mayors who have agreed to help stage the vote be summoned to court as official suspects and if they do not appear to “order their arrest,”according to a copy of the ruling obtained by Agence France-Presse.

Pro-independence Catalan president Carles Puigdemont dubbed the move an “atrocity scarcely worthy of a democracy,” and said he would attend Saturday’s protest.

Catalonia’s pro-separatist government has asked the wealthy northeastern region’s 948 mayors to provide facilities for polling stations for the plebiscite.

So far 712 mostly smaller municipalities have agreed to participate, according to a list posted on the website of Catalonia’s Municipal Association for Independence (AMI) which represents 750 municipalities.

“They can arrest us! They’re crazy!,” David Rovira, the pro-separatist mayor of L’Espluga de Francoli, a town of some 3,800 residents, told Agence France-Presse by phone, adding that Madrid had “proposed nothing” to appease Catalonia’s demands for greater autonomy.

Jordi Turull, spokesman for the Catalan government, told reporters that the executive would support the region’s mayors and would “respect their decision.”

The ruling comes a day after prosecutors ordered police in Catalonia to seize ballot boxes, election flyers and any other item that could be used in the referendum.

Prosecutors have already launched an official complaint against Puigdemont and members of his government over their referendum plans, accusing them of civil disobedience, misfeasance and misappropriation of public funds—the latter carrying jail sentences of up to eight years.

And on Wednesday, the official referendum website was shut down following a court order, the Guardia Civil police force said, prompting Puigdemont to immediately tweet the address of a new website.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s conservative government has vowed to do everything in its power to stop the referendum. It argues that Spain’s 1978 constitution stipulates that regional governments cannot call an independence referendum.

Rajoy on Wednesday urged Catalans to boycott the referendum.

“If anyone urges you to go to a polling station, don’t go because the referendum can’t take place, it would be an absolutely illegal act,” he said.

Spain’s Constitutional Court has suspended a referendum law that was fast-tracked through Catalonia’s regional parliament last week but the Catalan government has vowed to go ahead with the vote nonetheless.

Catalan authorities routinely ignore the court’s decisions as they do not recognize its legitimacy. </s> News reports says Spanish police have arrested 12 people in raids on offices of the regional government of Catalonia as a crackdown intensifies on the region's preparations for a secession vote that Spain says is illegal.

Spain's Europa Press news agency and other media outlets said the raids Wednesday mostly targeted the region's economic and foreign departments as Spanish authorities worked to halt all preparatory moves for the planned Oct. 1 referendum.

Hundreds of people gathered to protest the raids and shout pro-independence slogans outside offices in the region's capital, Barcelona.

The Catalan regional government confirmed Josep Maria Jove, secretary general of economic affairs, was among those arrested.

Police and judicial authorities would give no details on the operation, saying a judge has placed a secrecy order on it. </s> (MADRID) — Spanish police arrested at least 12 people Wednesday in raids on Catalan government offices, news reports said, as national authorities intensified a crackdown on the region's preparations for a secession vote that Spain says is illegal.

It was the first time Spanish authorities have detained Catalan officials since the campaign to hold a vote on Catalonia's independence began to gather momentum in 2011.

The move was the latest spike in tension in the standoff between national authorities based in Madrid and pro-independence Catalans over a planned Oct. 1 referendum. Several thousand Catalans gathered to angrily protest the raids outside government offices in the region's capital, Barcelona.

Some demonstrators sat down in the street to block police cars, while others scuffled with officers. Protests also occurred in other Catalan towns. There were no reports of arrests or injuries.

Catalonia's president, Carles Puigdemont, blasted the police operations as "unlawful" and accused the national government of adopting a "totalitarian attitude."

Police acting on a judge's orders searched 42 premises, including six regional government offices, officials' private offices and homes, as well as three companies in Barcelona, the city's superior court said in a statement. It said some 20 people are under investigation for alleged disobedience, abuse of power and embezzlement related to the referendum.

Police and judicial authorities declined to give further details of the operation, which aimed to halt preparations for the vote, saying a judge has placed a secrecy order on it.

Police confiscated nearly 10 million ballot papers, the Interior Ministry said. Polling station signs and documents for electoral officers were also seized during a raid on a warehouse in a small town outside Barcelona.

The Catalan regional government confirmed Josep Maria Jove, secretary general of economic affairs, and Lluis Salvado, secretary of taxation, were among those arrested. Jove is No. 2 to the region's vice president and economy chief, Oriol Junqueras.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said his conservative government is determined to prevent the ballot. He said the Catalan government is going against the Spanish Constitution by holding the vote and that "logically, the state has to act."

"No democratic state in the world would accept what these people are proposing," Rajoy said. His stance has the backing of most Spanish opposition parties.

The Constitutional Court has ordered the vote to be suspended as it assesses its legality, but Catalan officials say they will press ahead regardless.

"Today the government of Rajoy has crossed a very dangerous red line," said Jordi Sanchez, president of Catalan National Assembly, a civic group leading the independence drive. "We will do all we can for democracy and freedom to prevail."

The Barcelona soccer team, which is popular around the world, waded into the controversy too. It said it "condemns any act that may impede the free exercise of (democratic) rights" and vowed to "continue to support the will of the majority of Catalan people, and will do so in a civil, peaceful, and exemplary way."

The arrests risked stoking public anger in Catalonia, where pro-independence passions can run high. At the demonstration outside the Catalan regional ministry of economy, protester Charo Rovira said she felt sad at the turn of events.

"Catalonia is practically in a state of siege," she said. She added that the arrested politicians were merely acting according to the will of the people.

Spain's Interior Ministry canceled time off and scheduled leave for Civil Guard and National Police officers who are being deployed to ensure the ballot doesn't happen. It gave no details on the number of agents involved.

In another tightening of the screw, Spain's Finance Ministry said it has imposed further controls over the Catalan government's finances to ensure no public money is used for the referendum. Finance Minister Cristobal Montoro signed an order late Tuesday that limits new credit and requires central authorities' supervision for every payment of non-essential services in Catalonia, the ministry said.

The measure means that virtually all the Catalan public spending will be in the hands of Madrid. The Finance Ministry took over the direct payment of basic services such as education, health and civil servants' salaries last week.

Puigdemont claimed the central government has effectively ended Catalonia's self-rule. The region, like others in Spain, has broad self-governing powers.

Catalonia represents a fifth of Spain's 1.1-trillion-euro ($1.32 trillion) economy. The region's 7.5 million inhabitants overwhelmingly favor a referendum but are roughly evenly divided over independence. </s> Catalan separatists are using 'Nazi' tactics to intimidate their opponents before an illegal referendum on independence, the Spanish Foreign Minister has claimed.

Alfonso Dastis said separatists are encouraging their supporters to harass their opponents as tensions rise before the the October 1 ballot to leave Spain.

'These people actually are taking some Nazi attitudes because they are putting up posters with the faces of mayors who are resisting their call to participate in this charade,' Mr Dastis said.

He also said 'referendums are a weapon of choice of dictators' referring to the two the late Spanish leader General Francisco Franco conducted before the country returned to democracy after his death in 1975.

Mr Dastis was speaking in an interview in New York, where he is attending a meeting of the General Assembly of the United Nations.

He spoke as the first of hundreds of Catalan mayors summoned to answer questions on why they have backed the banned referendum appeared before the state prosecutor on Tuesday amid cheers and chants from supporters.

Marc Solsona, mayor of the town of Mollerussa, one of nearly 750 mayors facing charges of civil disobedience, abuse of office and misuse of public funds said 'voting is not a crime,' as he left the state prosecutor's office in Barcelona.

Solsona smiled, kissed and gripped hands with dozens of clapping supporters gathered outside the state prosecutor's office as he entered to chants of 'You are not alone'.

'I'm just the mayor and I have to serve my people. I am committed to the people being able to vote on October 1 in accordance with the law passed by the Catalan parliament and what happens to me is not important,' he said.

Pensioner Angel Tena, 63, who had travelled to Barcelona to support the mayor said: 'We consider ourselves privileged to have a mayor who represents the townspeople above any other interests.'

Spain's Guardia Civil police has begun searching several headquarters in Barcelona of Catalonia's regional government, a Catalan government spokesman said.

Separately, police continued their search for ballot boxes, voting papers and campaign leaflets on Wednesday, raiding the offices of Spain's biggest private delivery company Unipost in the Catalan city of Terrassa, Spanish media reported.

After a series of rulings from the Constitutional Court decreed the vote illegal, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is imposing financial curbs on the regional administration and has promised tougher sanctions still if officials refuse to back down.

Although polls show less than half of Catalonia's 5.5 million voters want self-rule, most in the wealthy northeastern region want the chance to vote on the issue. </s> The Spanish High Court has ordered the arrest of two people linked to separatist grassroots groups known as the Committees for the Defense of the Republic (CDR). According to official sources, the two are wanted on charges of rebellion and terrorism for their involvement in the push for Catalan independence.

The Civil Guard has so far arrested one woman from Viladecans, near Barcelona, who is accused of making and distributing an audio recording with instructions that preempted acts of vandalism during Easter week. During this period, CDR activists blocked several major highways and on April 1, members entered toll plazas on the AP-7 and C-32 highways, and forced the barriers open to let drivers through for free.

The CDR group allows cars to pass on the AP-7. CDR CARDEDÉU

The arrest orders follow last week’s warnings from High Court prosecutors that they would pursue “criminal investigations of all types” into the group. In its statement, public prosecution services said that CDR’s actions “not only endanger public peace and constitutional order, but also the very essence of the democratic system.”

There are around 300 Committees throughout Catalonia, and their actions have been growing in number and scope ever since Germany arrested Carles Puigdemont, the former premier who fled to Belgium following the failed independence declaration last year. After his arrest, the CDR blocked the main highways in Catalonia for a number of hours before being dismantled by the Catalan regional police force.

The CDR are a continuation of the Committees for the Defense of the Referendum, groups that began to organize last year in July – online and through instant message service apps such as Telegram – to stop the central government from intervening in the illegal referendum on Catalan independence.

After the referendum took place, the CDR declared they were Catalan “republic defense committees” and played an active role in the “national strike” called for October 3, occupying buildings such as the high-speed AVE station in Girona. Although the group’s core continues to be anti-establishment radicals, students, professionals and retirees have also joined their ranks.

English version by Melissa Kitson.
Spain's Guardia Civil raid private delivery offices in the Catalan city of Terrassa, searching for and confiscating envelopes suspected of containing voting cards for the upcoming Catalan independence referendum.