Spanish Intelligence Warned Government Eight Days Before Ceuta Migrant Surge
5th August 2026
Pedro Sánchez is reportedly preparing to summon three senior ministers for crisis talks as a damaging row over whether his government ignored advance warnings of the mass breach of Spain’s border at Ceuta deepened on Wednesday.
The Spanish prime minister is expected to meet Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, Defence Minister Margarita Robles and Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares at La Mareta, the state residence in Lanzarote where he is spending his summer holiday, according to La Razón.
The meeting comes amid growing tensions between the Interior and Defence ministries over what the National Intelligence Centre (CNI) knew before tens of thousands of migrants entered Ceuta, a Spanish territory in North Africa bordering Morocco, last week.
CNI sources told La Razón that the interior ministry was warned “with sufficient time” and that intelligence notes had been prepared. The agency reportedly identified several WhatsApp groups promoting the crossing by July 22—eight days before the influx began—including one named “Crossing to Ceuta or death.”