Operation Golden Globe protects London for the coronation of Carlos III

Prevent any terrorist attack, protests disrupting the festivities and criminals taking advantage of the crowd to commit their misdeeds. Those are the three main objectives of the operation Golden Ball (Golden Ball), a massive security device designed by the British government to guarantee that King Carlos III’s coronation would take place without incident. And control cases like the one that happened on Tuesday at 19:00 (one less in Spain), when a man threw what he suspected were shotgun cartridges at the door of Buckingham Palace.

The suspect was arrested for possession of an offensive weapon, and the police officers disposed of the suspicious items with a controlled explosion. Neither the king nor the queen were in the official residence at that time, according to Guard. “There have been no reports of gunfire or injuries between officers and the public,” Superintendent Joseph McDonald said.

Visible or invisible

Thousands of UK police officers will take part in a two-pronged operation: the visible one, in which hundreds of uniformed officers will line the route of the monarch’s entourage from Buckingham to Westminster Abbey and back on Saturday to protect the royal family, their guests and citizens who will follow the actions on the street.

And the invisible ones, which will include hundreds of agents, dressed in civilian clothes, who will mix with the crowd and watch for any irregularity. Likewise, snipers will be deployed on the roofs of buildings, while other units will patrol the sewers and the banks of the River Thames. And finally, dozens of other uniformed officers will monitor social networks and the so-called dark web in search of any threat.

major operation

The local press assures that the police involvement will be even greater than that recorded during the state funeral of Elizabeth II last September. Reason? Today there are more threats like those posed by radical Republican and environmental groups. The former announced protests for this weekend, and the latter, although they did not call protests, have given the authorities headaches in recent years with actions such as blocking streets and taking over train stations.

It has also been reported that Scotland Yard has started contacting suspects or ex-convicts of terrorism, hate crimes and other serious crimes to warn them to stay away from the city centre. Uniformed officers are also expected to monitor those deemed most dangerous over the weekend. newspapers like Sun They assure that the security operation will cost around 150 million pounds (170 million euros).