Crackdown on 'Top Manta' in Alicante with at Least Four Arrests

Several patrols from the National, Local, and Port Police gathered in front of Panoramis around 10:30 PM this Thursday. An authoritative voice directs the final stages of a raid. The target: 'top manta'.

With Alicante's centre bustling on a calm last night of July, someone raises the alarm. The 'manteros' begin to pack up, but the police operation is already underway. Numerous vehicles from the three forces storm the Explanada and the port. Chaos ensues.

The illegal vendors scatter in all directions. Some officers pursue them, while others seize counterfeit goods. The operation reaches a critical point when one of the 'manteros', in his escape, jostles a foreign tourist.

Several national police officers attempt to subdue him, but he puts up fierce resistance. Her husband jumps in. The vendor resists, out of control. A blue spark, an electric flash: the taser leaves him motionless in front of the Explanada's shell. He is under arrest.

While part of the unit operates on the Explanada, another Local Police patrol thoroughly searches the port's parking and the Volvo Zone. Among the shadows of the concrete walls and columns, piles of counterfeit shirts, sneakers, and bags emerge.

The sweep continues inside a boat about to depart with numerous tourists. Three officers speak with the captain and inspect the vessel. They find one of the blankets filled with illicit material.

The joint operation, resulting in at least four arrests and the seizure of several kilos of counterfeit goods, according to police sources, comes at a time when illegal vending is at a boiling point following an assault by a 'mantero' on a Local Police officer, which ended with a broken nose.

The City Council, during the last plenary session held the same morning as the operation, had announced crackdowns against 'top manta'. And they quickly became a reality.

Hours before the police operation, the SITAP union warned that illegal street vending "endangers the safety of officers, residents, and visitors" and that it is not an anecdote, but "a constant threat, normalized by institutional inaction".

The union once again raised its voice against a reality that can no longer be ignored: "illegal street vending has overwhelmed Alicante's public spaces, becoming a phenomenon that not only violates the rules of coexistence and commerce but also endangers the safety of officers, residents, and visitors".

"Defending order is not repression, it is responsibility. When something happens, we are the officers who are there, without excuses, without breaks, and, of course, at a meagre 14 euros an hour," they concluded.