Arrested in Murcia an alleged jihadist who collected photos of police and looking for weapons | Spain
The Civil Guard has arrested a Spanish citizen of Moroccan origin in Murcia and 36 years as an alleged perpetrator of several crimes of jihadist terrorism After in recent months he detected that « he had radicalized his behavior and activity » and feared that he could try a short or medium term attack, as reported by the Interior Ministry. After their arrest, the information service agents of the Armed Institute (specialized in the anti -terrorism struggle) located in their computer equipment photographs of police and a wide history of internet searches on how to get firearms and prepare explosives.
The researchers had already detected that the now detained had begun to pour threats against the security forces in chats of the Telegram instant messaging application following an incident that had had agents during an identification. Photos in which, dressed in military clothing, tried to emulate the poses adopted by jihadist terrorists in the videos that are recorded before attentive, detail sources close to the investigation have also been located on their electronic devices. The investigations have revealed that I was trying to capture a minor of your surroundings to radicalize it.
The arrested was not a stranger for the Civil Guard, who investigated him since 2019, shortly after the agents detected the radical Islamist activity of a sister with whom he lived in Albacete. She, who then showed a much larger degree of radicalization, was arrested in 2020 and expelled from Spain at the proposal of Interior, who decided, where appropriate, to renounce the criminal process and give priority to deportation for national security reasons in application of article 57 of the Foreigner Law. The now detained, however, has entered prison by order of the Judge of the National Court Ismael Moreno.
The baptized as Operation Marhaq rushed on April 2 after the agents who investigated the man for more than five years detected that he had entered a radical drift that they considered dangerous and made him a “potential threat”, as described in the interior note. Consumer of propaganda material of different jihadist groups such as the Islamic State (ISIS in its acronym in English) had begun to launch in their social media profiles praise dead terrorists in suicidal attacks. However, what fired the alerts were their consultations to get information about manufacturing explosive material or getting a firearm. « Then it was decided to stop him to anticipate a hypothetical attempt at the attack, » they point out the same sources, which emphasize that by then the research on him had already allowed to collect « a set of indications and solid evidence of his alleged terrorist activity. »
In the first three and a half months of the yearsecurity forces have arrested 48 people accused of different Crimes related to jihadismaccording to the official statistics of the Ministry of Interior. If this rhythm follow, the year can end more than a hundred arrests, figures not registered since 2004, when the 11-M attacks were committed and 131 alleged jihadists were arrested. This upward trend in the number of antiyihadist operations began in October 2023, when the outbreak of the War in Gaza after Hamas’s terrorist attacks and Israel’s military response forced the department of Fernando Grande-Marlaska to accelerate many of the investigations that had open on suspects of radical Islamist activities in the face of fear that the conflict Police In total, in the time elapsed since the beginning of the war in Gaza, the security forces have arrested 183 alleged Islamist terrorist.
Last Friday, Interior announced a reinforcement of prevention measures, protection and anti -terrorism response to Holy Week. As detailed last week in a note, the operation will run until 24.00 on April 22. The Ministry justifies the extent that these days are « a period of special meaning that involves a large presence and participation of citizens in many public events as well as an outstanding increase in displacements throughout the national territory in all types of transport. » The initiative is not new. It is usual that Interior reinforces the current level 4 of anti -terrorism alert, « high risk », over the existing five ―In vigor since June 2015 – on indicated dates, such as these or Christmas.
