In Valencia, the far-right party España 2000 has launched a new wave of street patrols under the guise of a social NGO, focusing on neighborhoods with impressive immigrant communities. The group, which calls itself Ángeles de la noche, is preparing to operate in La Malvarrosa, near Las Casitas Rosas, an area associated with drug activity. Members wear black uniforms bearing a silver logo and plan to patrol in teams, citing concerns about rising insecurity.
Official crime figures provide broader regional context, but do not describe conditions in either neighborhood. Spain’s Ministry of the Interior reported 50.3 offences known to police per 1,000 inhabitants nationally in 2025. Its criminality measure compiles offences reported or otherwise detected by the Policía Nacional, Guardia Civil, regional forces and participating local police. The ministry says the indicator neither measures residents’ sense of insecurity nor captures every offence. It also counts offences of different severity without weighting them equally. The figure measures recorded criminality, not public perceptions or the causes of crime.
Though the group presents itself as a spontaneous collection of concerned residents, España 2000 orchestrates the operation. The party is led by José Luis Roberto Navarro, a 72-year-old lawyer and private security businessman. The initiative is formally managed through the NGO Hogar Social Patriota María Luisa Navarro, registered as a social assistance entity in 2010. Information from El País, Roberto acknowledges his leadership role and says the patrols are legal. He says they will coordinate with police and report their activities to authorities.
Each patrol squad has six members. Most are España 2000 affiliates with martial arts training and an anti-immigration stance. The group says its aim is to assist police in so-called “hot spots” and detain suspects until law enforcement arrives. Volunteers are instructed to carry only whistles and follow a strict code of conduct. The patrols will also distribute safety leaflets to tourists, initially focusing on areas with large immigrant populations before expanding into basic Valencia. Any detention or enforcement activity by volunteers is separate from the policing recorded in official crime statistics.
At an October 2026 briefing on Policía Nacional activity in the Comunitat Valenciana, regional police chief Carlos Gajero described “a slight but continuous improvement” in criminality indicators compared with the previous year. Las Provincias reported a 42.56% effectiveness rate, a 10.25% fall in residential burglaries, a 13.65% decrease in card fraud and a 12.18% reduction in petty theft. Arrests for criminal offences rose by 6.25%. The CIMACC 091 control centre coordinated more than 463,000 interventions across the three provinces, while police carried out nearly 600 special operations. These are regional figures, not measures of crime trends in La Malvarrosa or Las Casitas Rosas.
Roberto has recruited Ricardo Ferris, a former chief inspector of the National Police in Valencia, to oversee the patrols. Ferris was removed from his post after linking immigration to crime at a Vox event. Now retired and involved in Roberto’s security business, he describes the patrols as “the eyes and ears of the police.”
The operation’s headquarters is near La Malvarrosa, where the group also holds events featuring figures from Spain’s far-right scene. The NGO previously drew attention for distributing food exclusively to Spaniards, following the example of Greece’s Golden Dawn. The local food bank then cut off supplies, prompting the group to collect donations outside supermarkets.
Roberto’s network reaches into the private security sector. His basic company has reported impressive profits and won public contracts in recent years. He acknowledges that most of his security businesses, in Spain and abroad, are not registered under his name, a strategy intended to avoid political obstacles in public tenders. His past includes surviving a letter bomb attack in 2003 and organizing far-right demonstrations, including the 2021 march in Madrid’s Chueca neighborhood.
The group also runs self-defense workshops, including training in techniques taught to active members of the police and military. It keeps its internal structure and financial operations strictly secret. The patrols have raised concerns among local authorities and residents, particularly given the group’s explicit anti-immigrant rhetoric and history of legal disputes over hate crimes.
Far-right activism has grown in Valencia in recent years. España 2000 won seats on local councils before Vox’s rise. NGOs serving as fronts for political activity are not new in Spain, but the direct involvement of former police officials and the focus on immigrant neighborhoods mark a impressive escalation. The Spanish government and local authorities continue to monitor such initiatives, stressing the need to maintain public order and prevent vigilantism.
