Businesspeople related to independence push arrested

Several Catalan businesspeople related to the independence push were arrested in a Spanish police operation underway on Wednesday morning.

The operation is for misuse of public funds, money laundering and breach of official duty.

Among those detained were the head of Carles Puigdemont's office, Josep Lluís Alay, and well-known editor Oriol Soler, the Catalan News Agency (ACN) learned.

Former extinct CiU party senior official David Madí was also arrested, ACN confirmed.

Media outlet 'El Confidencial' published that Xavier Vendrell, former ERC party senior officials, was also arrested.

RAC1 station said Xavier Vinyals, the president of a lobby in favor of Catalan national sport teams, Plataforma ProSeleccions Catalanes, was also detained.

According to 'El Confidencial', Spain's Guardia Civil are investigating them for their relationship with Tsunami Democràtic, the anonymous group that organized several protests after the 2017 referendum leaders' trial sentence.

Along with the occupation of the Barcelona airport, one of the biggest protest actions in late 2019 consisted of blocking off the AP-7 highway at the French border, for which 196 people are under investigation.