BARCELONA, Spain — It’s a stunt of which Houdini would have been proud.

After seven years in self-declared exile in Belgium, Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont magically appeared in Barcelona on Thursday, gave a speech before a crowd of thousands … and then abruptly vanished before cops could take him into custody.

According to a statement released by the Mossos d’Esquadra — the Catalan regional police force tasked with detaining Puigdemont — a plan was in place to arrest the separatist leader “proportionately and at the most appropriate time so as not to generate public disorder.”

But before that could happen, the police said Puigdemont “took advantage of the number of people surrounding him [and] fled the place in a vehicle that the police tried to stop but failed to do so.”

How could Puigdemont — a man who became arguably Spain’s most well-known politician after orchestrating Catalonia’s illegal independence referendum in 2017, and who has an active arrest warrant issued in his name — disappear from one of Barcelona’s broadest thoroughfares?

Dozens of reporters were following him as he began his march to the Catalan parliament building, surrounded by a ring of prominent separatist lawmakers and die-hard supporters. But just moments after the group started to move, he was gone.

Matthew Dunn, a former MI6 intelligence officer with experience in the diversion tactics used by spies to disappear into crowds, said it would have been reasonably easy for Puigdemont to slip away.

“People operating in hostile environments overseas use various techniques to throw off the teams surveilling them, all of which involve getting away without the people watching you knowing that you’re aware that they’re around and you intend to get away from them,” he explained.

“The key is to not act erratically: If you’re in a city setting, you’ll want to come up with a theme for your movements, like pretending you’re shopping and go into four or five shoe shops,” Dunn said. “If you’re a politician surrounded by supporters, the crowd provides great cover because it’s totally normal for you to wade among the people to greet them — and then to lose the people trailing you in the throes of that human mass.”

The estimated 3,500 people who gathered to hear Puigdemont’s speech Thursday morning created a “nightmare” scenario for anyone trying to keep track of his movements, Dunn said. “It’s so easy to lose someone when so many people are swirling around, especially if the people tasked with tracking him are police officers that are also supposed to be doing crowd control and keeping an eye out for disorderly conduct.”

Given that Puigdemont’s team had said the politician would give a speech and then march to the Catalan parliament, the ex-MI6 officer added that the police monitoring his movements had “no real reason to put him under specific surveillance … He’s a well-known, public figure, they knew were he was going, and they were likely seeking to reduce the possibility of a direct clash with his supporters.”

An estimated 3,500 people who gathered to hear Carles Puigdemont’s speech. | Alberto Estevez/EPA

Puigdemont was apparently aided by a sympathetic member of the Mossos who was himself arrested on Thursday afternoon. According to police officials cited by Spanish media, the politician allegedly fled in a vehicle owned by the police officer; Puigdemont was not with the cop when the officer was arrested. A second police officer was arrested later in the evening. The Mossos have announced further arrests will take place.

Dunn said that given the complexity of the situation, the officer’s help was likely key to Puigdemont’s escape. “A regular police force isn’t equipped to track someone in those kinds of crowd conditions, especially if that person can rely on an insider who knows what’s going on and can take advantage of an opportunity to help you vanish,” Dunn said.

‘Unbearable humiliation’

Puigdemont’s disappearance prompted the Catalan regional police to launch a full-scale manhunt. As part of Operatiu Gàbia (Operation Cage), agents set up checkpoints at all of the city’s exit points in a bid to locate the vehicle in which the former Catalan president was said to be traveling.

For most of Thursday, all of the Catalonia region was under lockdown, with roadblocks set up on major highways leading to France. Officers were also deployed to airports and train stations, where passengers were being subjected to additional controls in a bid to locate Puigdemont. Over 300 agents took part in the operation, which led to major traffic delays.

Live coverage of Puigdemont’s defiant reappearance and subsequent vanishment caused widespread consternation in Spain. The conservative opposition accused Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sa´nchez of allowing the country to suffer, in the words of People’s Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo “yet another unbearable humiliation.”

“Puigdemont intended to get Catalonia out of Spain, but in the end Sánchez has gotten Spain out of Catalonia, and today’s delirious spectacle is proof of that,” Feijóo said on X. “This does unforgivable damage to Spain’s image.”

The alleged participation of Catalan police officers in Puigdemont’s escape plan felt like déjà vu for many in Spain who remember how at least one member of the same police force helped the same politician escape authorities in 2017.

Thanks to a tip-off from a member of the Mossos, Puigdemont was warned that his detention was imminent, and he successfully evaded the police, crossing the border into France minutes before agents set up a roadblock to prevent his escape.

Another member of the regional police force was later prosecuted for serving as Puigdemont’s bodyguard during his self-imposed exile in Brussels.

Spain’s leading police union, Jupol, said the politician’s escape was “a scandal” that represented “an unacceptable dereliction of duty” on the part of the Catalan police. The right-leaning Unified Police Union demanded that the country’s National Police Force and Civil Guard take charge and that the regional officers be excluded from the investigation.

Carles Puigdemont’s disappearance prompted the Catalan regional police to launch a full-scale manhunt. | Alberto Estevez/EPA

Toni Castejón, spokesperson for regional police union Sap-Fepol, expressed dismay over the situation and said that officers “did not deserve this shame” before calling for Mossos’ senior leadership to take responsibility for what had gone wrong.

“Today has been grotesque, we made a fool of ourselves. The police and political leadership, including the Catalan interior minister, the chief commissioner, and the director general all have to give explanations for the ridicule they have made us suffer, professionals do not deserve these attacks from politicians,” Albert Palacio, spokesperson for the independent Catalan police trade union USPAC, told POLITICO.

In contrast, a member of Puigdemont’s inner circle, granted anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject, blasted the cops for going after the politician. “Hundreds of policemen to catch a political leader is not the typical action of a democracy, but of a regime in search of its public enemy number one.”

Although he may have evaded police in central Barcelona, it’s unclear how long Puigdemont can remain on the run. The mop-topped separatist is an instantly recognizable figure who is so famous that stores in the region sell caganers — a defecating figurine Catalans traditionally include in nativity scenes — that look like him.

With roads, railways, airports and harbors under scrutiny, Puigdemont’s only option for escape appears to be an arduous hike across the Pyrenees. He may also opt to stay put in a safe house with supporters. How long he’ll be able to hold out remains a mystery.