Of the top ten worst offenders in Barcelona over the summer, an Algerian illegal migrant topped the list with 14 arrests over a period of just 11 weeks.
Police say the 18-year-old Algerian was arrested eight separate times for theft and six times for acts of violence and intimidation and was part of a group of underage migrants who arrived in the city last year, Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia reports.
Despite being arrested 14 times, the teen remains free in the city until his next potential arrest and is just one of the 90 percent of cases for robbery, violence and intimidation this year in Barcelona where judges have decided not to hand down prison sentences, despite requests from prosecutors.
The second most prolific offender, arrested eleven times for various crimes including violence and drug trafficking, is also a migrant, a 28-year-old born in Morocco.
Of the top ten most prolific criminals in the city, just one was born in Spain, a 35-year-old arrested a total of nine times for various robberies.
As a result of the surge in crime, particularly in the areas of Ciutat Vella and Eixample, police say they will ramp up operations in September of this year and will focus on deporting foreign criminal gangs along with illegal migrant repeat offenders.
Criminals with migrant backgrounds have become a major issue in countries affected by mass migration since the height of the migrant crisis in 2015.
In Italy, as many as one in three suspects in crimes are from a foreign background according to figures released last year by the Italian Interior Ministry.
Other countries, like Germany, have seen an even greater number of migrant suspects in certain cities like Berlin where foreigners make up over half of the suspects. A similar statistic was reported in the Austrian capital of Vienna last year as well.