Crime falls in Figueres and Roses, drug offences rise

Recorded crime fell in both Figueres and Roses in the first half of this year, according to new figures from the Spanish Ministry of the Interior. However, drug trafficking offences went up in both towns, and several violent crime categories rose across the province of Girona.

The ministry's statistics compare the first six months of the year with the same period of 2025. Figueres, the capital of the Alt Empordà, registered 1,843 criminal offences, a drop of 8.6%. Roses recorded 788, a fall of 20%.

The data brings together reports from all four police forces working in the area: the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalonia's regional police), local police forces, the Policia Nacional and the Guàrdia Civil. The ministry publishes separate figures only for municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants, along with a total for each province.

A mixed picture across the province

Across the Girona counties, police recorded 22,256 offences in the first half of the year, a fall of 6.8%. Of these, 3,626 were committed online.

The overall decline hides some worrying trends. Rapes rose by 9.1% across the province. There were also increases in attempted homicides, completed murders, assaults causing injury and mass brawls. Other offences against sexual freedom, such as groping, followed an uneven pattern, falling in some towns and rising in others.

Almost every municipality in the Girona counties that appears in the data saw crime go down. The two exceptions were Banyoles and Lloret de Mar. Roses and Palafrugell recorded the largest falls.

Violent crime in Figueres and Roses

Figueres was the scene of one of the three homicides recorded in the province during the period. In May, a woman was killed in the street by her former partner.

Across the province, 274 cases of serious and less serious assault and mass brawls were recorded. Figueres accounted for 20 of them, down 9.1%. Roses registered five such incidents, an increase of 66.7% on the same period last year.

Drug offences go against the trend

Drug trafficking is where the two towns differ from the provincial picture. Offences in this category rose in both, with 45 cases in Figueres and five in Roses.

Burglaries and robberies involving force dropped significantly in both towns, with Roses showing the sharpest improvement. Vehicle thefts followed different paths. They fell in Figueres but rose by 23.5% in Roses.

Theft without violence did not increase in either town. Even so, the numbers remain notable: 486 cases in Figueres and 362 in Roses. Taken together, the two municipalities accounted for 1,247 offences classed as conventional crime.

Our Take

For residents and visitors in the Alt Empordà, the headline figures are encouraging. A 20% fall in Roses, one of the busiest tourist towns on this stretch of the Costa Brava, suggests that everyday crime such as burglaries is under better control than a year ago. Theft still accounts for a large share of offences, however, and it remains sensible to take the usual precautions with bags, cars and holiday homes.

The rise in drug trafficking offences deserves closer attention. It is worth noting that a higher count can reflect more active policing as well as more activity on the ground. Across the province, the increase in rapes and serious violence is a reminder that falling totals do not tell the whole story. The killing in Figueres in May remains a stark example.

Castelló d'Empúries, including Empuriabrava, is not among the towns singled out in the ministry's breakdown, so these figures offer only an indirect guide for our own area. Crime here is not limited to the streets either, as the recent case of a travel agency owner in L'Escala arrested over alleged fraud showed. It will be worth watching whether the drop holds through the busy summer months, and whether vehicle thefts in Roses and drug offences in both towns continue to rise when the full-year data is published.