The Baix Llobregat [Lower Llobregat] Gang, its big sabotage operation and other minor affairs from the time

We now leave French soil far behind us and turn south of the Pyrenees again. After the lure of the underground operations in France, I turn my gaze now to the Peninsula and today I am going to delve into one of the mightiest, if least known acts of sabotage carried out by the libertarian guerrilla groups.  Particularly little-known outside of Catalonia. 

Most of my information comes from the superb study written by Juli Ochoa and entitled Maquis al Baix Llobregat [The Maquis in the Lower Llobregat], which has been a great help in filling in the gaps about the anarchist armed resistance, regarding which we had had some information, though always incomplete information. Another reason why I have decided to deal with this matter is that it involves a big sabotage operation mounted by a reasonably little-known group. So today we shall not be dealing with expropriations (well, not so much) but with explosions, which tickles my fancy and then again we can follow in the footsteps of one of the groups that generally do not get a mention; there again, this tickles my fancy. So let us get down to business. 

This was in the summer of 1947. It was gradually dawning upon the anti-Francoists in exile and those in the interior of Spain that the Allied powers had not the slightest intention of unseating Franco. It suited them better to ensure that the country controlling access to the Mediterranean should be led by a far right-wing Catholic than that the communists should come to power or some left-wing coalition just when the Cold War was becoming a thing.

That said, both the action groups inside Spain and the ones sent south by the MLE were to train their sights on the dictator. For one thing, from French soil, both Laureano Cerrada and the Sección Coordinacion were to lay plans for an attempt on his life during the dictator’s visit to the mining town of Sallent. On the other hand, one of the groups in the Interior, one that had no contacts in Toulouse, was committed to doing likewise, but its plans were laid in Barcelona.

The Coordination Branch which was in charge of the clandestine apparatus, received a tip-off that Franco was going to pay a visit to Barcelona and to the Sallent mining basin in May 1947. So they trained and generously armed a very sizeable group consisting of about 50 people, to handle matters. Ramón Vila, whose name was a by-word, would act as their guide. The group included people such as Domingo Ibars, Juan Cazorla or Jesús Martínez. They set off from the Mas Tartas safehouse and whilst crossing the Pyrenees by night, part of the group got lost in the mist. Domingo Ibars was one of those bringing up the rear and when he heard noises behind him in the mist, he assumed that it was border guards or Civil Guards and opened fire. There was a short-lived crossfire before this was found to be a mistaken assumption and they caught on that they had opened fire on one another. This shambles did not escape the notice of the forces of repression and the assassination plan was thwarted even before Franco had set foot in Catalonia.

Then again, Los Anónimos, an action group made up mostly of Murcians and Andalusians, then based in Barcelona, was also preparing a special welcome of its own for the dictator that 17 May. Some of them, posing as photographers, had their weapons hidden in the great bulky cameras of the day, whilst others using phoney police IDs waited for the bigwigs at the Columbus statue, intent upon machine-gunning him and hurling explosives at Franco’s vehicle. 

To their surprise, just as the VIP party drew near, a bunch of youngsters joined the parade and stood beside the dictator’s car. After a swift and tense exchange of impressions, the decision was made to postpone the attack, given the considerable likelihood of casualties among the youngsters.

That same day, Pere Adrover aka Yayo attempted to plant an explosive device, hidden in a shoebox, in Barcelona cathedral, which was also a stop-over on the official route. But tight security restrictions denied his access to the environs and he decided to backtrack.

As we can see, things had gone topsy-turvy. Also that May, Facerías’s group planted explosives in the La Travessera barracks in Gracia. Two days before the dictator’s visit, a shootout in the Plaza de Cataluña left a Civil Guard and two policemen dead after they made to frisk one of the Soler brothers. That month the Libertarian Resistance Movement [MLR] made its debut with a hold-up at a factory in Granollers.

Looking past Barcelona, let us now focus on the handiwork of another of the groups, the Baix Llobregat [Lower Llobregat] group. They had begun their operations in April 1947 by carrying out a couple of expropriations in the townland of Collserola. The group was made up of Luis Agustín Vicente, Julián Núñez Gil (whose background was in the guerrillas in Ciudad Real), Cristófol Castellví Sabate, Manuel Andreu Cubero, José Asensio Garcia, Pedro Caballero and they would be joined later by Fernando Maraña Falcón (whose own background was in the Valle de Alcudia guerrillas).

On foot of intelligence received by the lower Llobregat Comarcal Committee, they discovered the location of an explosive store nearby; it was owned by the LACSA company and was very loosely guarded, with just two watchmen keeping an eye on it. After a few meetings, the night of 18-19 May was chosen for the mounting of the attack. The participants in the raid were Luis Agustín Vicente, Manuel Andreu Cubero, Cristófol Castellví Sabaté, Julián Núñez Gil, Juan José Plazas Aparicio and another two unidentified activists.

The first thing they did was to catch the bus as far as Esplugues; from there, they set off on a walk as far as the vicinity of Santa Creu d’Olorda. Thanks to the intelligence available to them, they knew that the two watchmen would be on their nightly rounds, so they had to pick out a place well away from the hut they normally manned. By the time they got there, darkness had fallen and they set about finding a vantage point from which to lay plans for their ambush.

There was a new moon that night and the monitoring point and the area surrounding were deadly still. They hid and when the watchmen came into view, the six men stepped out of the dark with their faces covered and brandishing their guns. The two watchmen offered no resistance, were tied up and taken behind their hut. They were left there, with Julián Núñez guarding them. Meanwhile, Cristófol Castellví posted himself at a point from where he was able to monitor the whole building and the area around about, so as to avoid any nasty surprises.

The remainder of the group headed for the explosives store and were well aware of where it was as José Plazas had actually worked for the company at one time before being let go by it later. I am not sure if they were taken aback by what they saw once they had forced entry. There was dynamite there, yes, but a pile of it. They made off with six bags, each containing about 10 kilos. But there was lots more in the store-room; in actual fact, there were 2,400 kilos of explosives in storage there. Whilst three of them got on with filling the bags, José Plazas readied a device with a time-delay fuse, meaning to blow up anything they could not carry away. That done, they went off to fetch Castellví and Julián Núñez, leaving the watchmen locked inside their hut, after which they made themselves scarce.

The libertarians had agreed beforehand on a location where they could stash the bags out by Font Calenta, lest they be caught red-handed in mid-raid. They also stashed a small amount of the explosives near Vallvidrera. 

At half past midnight on the 19 May, the explosive device went off. Triggering a huge explosion. To quote Julián Núñez’s own words: “There was a deafening explosion, lighting up the sky and making the road surface shudder as if in an earthquake.” The detonation was heard from as far away as Terrasa or Sabadell and from a number of barrios in Barcelona, where – in case anyone has forgotten – Franco was on a visit. It was so powerful that the members of the group immediately thought about the two watchmen tied up inside their hut as they had not been expecting it to be such a whopper. Luckily for them, the watchmen came through it with just a few light scratches.

One of the consequences of this sabotage raid was that a Civil Guard mini-barracks was built in the raided quarry site with an eye to its protection in the future; it came into service in 1950. It also triggered a wide-ranging dragnet in libertarian circles, resulting in lots of people being arrested, tortured and eventually jailed. Two young anarchists perished as a result of the mistreatment doled out by the police: one of them was Teodoro López Colás. 

Not that the Lower Llobregat group rested on its laurels after its spectacular raid. On 27 May they set up a checkpoint on the highway in the Collserola district, although the proceeds were just a measly 500 pesetas. Later, on 22 June and with Fernando Maraña along this time – who had been a guerrilla in Ciudad Real – they set up another checkpoint between Sitges and Castelldefels. They stopped 154 cars: bear in mind that back then cars were not all that plentiful and normally had wealthy owners. They came away with more than 100,000 pesetas this time as well as jewellery and sundry documents. By the time the Civil Guard showed up, the men behind the expropriation exercise were long gone. Between then and early August, the group was to mount roadblocks in a range of locations, albeit that the proceeds were less than in the big one. Both Fernando Maraña and José Plazas left the group following the checkpoint set up on Sunday 7 July out by Sant Just Desvern.

Oddly enough, at one of the roadblocks set up on 19 July out near Monistrol and just as the operation was being brought to a close, a new lorry arrived on the scene. As they approached it, they were startled to find it was a Policía Armada delivery, from the commissary as it happens. The lorry was carrying a corporal and a lieutenant in the cab, plus two police officers in the rear. All of them – except for the lieutenant – were disarmed. The lieutenant tied to stash his gun but it was quickly located by Cristófol Castellví. That gun finished up in the possession of Luis Agustín Vicente. What else was taken from the policemen, other than the gun, we do not know, but the raiders were able to make a smooth getaway.

As has been evident throughout this article, pretty much everything was included – frustrated assassination bids, raids on barracks, a variety of expropriations and the sabotage raid on a quarry. At the time, the action groups suffered no arrests or losses, which was, as we know, pretty rare. 

To turn now to less palatable matters. 

The bad news for the Lower Llobregat groups started on 8 August, as another two groups had arrived from France, sent in by the MLE as back-up, and Fernando Maraña had set up a group of his own. Avenir Mercé, a member of the groups that had arrived from France, was the first to be arrested. Then Julián Núñez fell into the clutches of the police sometime between 8 and 10 August. Under torture he was to provide information about his comrades. 18 August saw the arrest of Cristófol Castellví, who was caught in possession of various weapons. Manuel Andrés Cubero and José Asensio Garcia were the next to be caught by the police, the latter being captured in Madrid. On 20 August police tracked down one of the group’s arms dumps to José Ibáñez’s home: he managed to give them the slip and remained at large over the following year. Also on 20 August, Luis Agustín Vicente was picked up in Molins del Rey. Among the weapons found in his possession was that Policía Armada lieutenant’s stolen gun. In a dire sequel, on 29 August the police in Ronda de Sant Pau recognized, surrounded and tried to arrest Fernando Maraña, who opened fire and lost his life.  For anyone wanting further details as to what became of the groups sent in from France and much else besides, I can only refer you to Juli Ochoa’s study. I do not know if there are paper copies on sale – I don’t think so – because thus far I have only had sight of the pdf version posted on the web. At the foot of this article, I give the web address* so you can read the whole thing and I cannot recommend it too highly. 

Rather than end this entry on a sour note, I ought to say that on 28 September 1952 Luis Agustín Vicente aka el Metralla successfully broke out of the Montjuich fortress where he was serving his sentence. He started by disarming a guard and then, rather boldly, used his gun and was very lucky to find himself at large on the streets of Barcelona. He laid low in the city for several days and was then picked up by Jesús Martínez aka Maño and Ramón Vila aka Pasoslargos, two of the Organization’s leading guides who smuggled him into France. A few years later he was back on the streets of Barcelona along with Facerías and others, but that, as I am wont to say, is another story, to be dealt with some other time. 

*Juli Ochoa’s 100-page pdf can be found at https://www.academia.edu/70861201/Maquis_al_Baix_Llobregat 

El Salto, 25 August 2025
https://www.elsaltodiario.com/ni-cautivos-ni-desarmados/grupo-del-baix-llobregat-gran-sabotaje-otras-cosillas-epoca 

Image: Manuel Andreu Cubero [Source: Imanol]

Translated by: Paul Sharkey.