Josep Lluís Trapero Álvarez

Major dels Mossos d'Esquadra Josep Lluís Trapero Álvarez
Josep Lluís Trapero led the investigation and the press conferences of the 2017 Barcelona attacks.
Born	1965 Badalona, Catalonia, Spain
Alma mater	Open University of Catalonia Institut de Seguretat Pública de Catalunya (Public Safety Institute of Catalonia)
Awards	Two Mossos d'Esquadra bronze medals to the police merit Three Policía Nacional crosses to police merit with white badge Two Guardia Civil crosses of the order of merit with white badge
Police career
Department	Mossos d'Esquadra
Allegiance	Catalonia
Years of service	1990–2017
Rank	Major dels Mossos d'Esquadra (2017) Comissari en cap dels Mossos d'Esquadra (2013)

Josep Lluís Trapero Álvarez (Badalona, 1965) is the former Mossos d'Esquadra Major, the highest rank in the Catalan Police. On 28th October 2017, the Spanish government declared him removed from his post, after its invocation of Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, suspending Catalonia's autonomy. Trapero started his career as a Mosso in 1990 and after years of service he was granted the position of Commissioner in 2013. In 2017, after 26 years of service, he achieved the rank of Major, succeeding Joan Unió.

Josep Lluís Trapero was born in 1965 in Badalona in a humble family from Valladolid. During his childhood he lived in the working-class neighbourhood of La Guinardera in Santa Coloma de Gramanet, close to Barcelona. As a child he didn't want to be a police officer, he was more interested in animals and biology.

In 1989 he was admitted in the School of Public Security of Catalonia (Institut de Seguretat Pública de Catalunya) where he graduated the following year. In 2006 Trapero graduated in law from the Open University of Catalonia and later on obtained a postdegree in Direction and Management of Public Security. His fields of specialization are cybercrime, money laundering, and terrorism financing. In 2012 he travelled to an FBI academy in Quantico, United States, where he participated in the Latin American Law Enforcement Executive Development Seminar (LALEEDS).

As a Mosso d'Esquadra, Trapero has worked in the Basic Police Area in Girona and also in the Office of Complaints of Vielha. He also was a corporal in the Quatre Camins Prison. Later on, he was deployed in the Investigation Group in Blanes and Figueres, and afterwards he applied what he learnt in different regions of Catalonia. In 2008 he was designated as a Chief of the Division of Criminal Investigation (Divisió d'Investigació Criminal, CGIC). A year later he was promoted to Sub-Chief of the General Criminal Investigation Group (Comissaria General d'Investigació Criminal), and in 2012 he would be promoted again to lead the whole group. Just one year later he would be designated Commissioner of the Mossos d'Esquadra and in 2017 he was given the opportunity to get the position of Chief of police, which he accepted.