Spanish cops arrest ‘highly radicalised’ ISIS member operating in Costa Blanca resort popular with British holidaymakers
Police said they had sworn loyalty to terror group ISIS
A DAWN raid in a Costa Blanca holiday resort popular with Brits was launched as part of an operation leading to the arrest of four suspected ISIS terrorists.
One of the men was held in the tourist town of Altea near Benidorm after a joint operation by Spanish and Moroccan cops.
The other three were held in Spain’s north African enclave of Ceuta as well as Tetuan and Castillejos in northern Morocco.
Police said they had sworn loyalty to terror group ISIS and described them as “highly radicalised,” claiming they were ready if necessary to carry out terrorist attacks.
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They are suspected of radicalising new recruits to their cause and sending them to fight in areas like Syria and Iraq.
All four detainees are Moroccan.
A Spanish Ministry of Interior spokesman said in a statement: “Police in Spain and Morocco have managed to neutralise two terrorist cells and arrest their four members, all Moroccans.
“Two of them have been arrested in Spain, specifically Ceuta and Altea, and the other two in Morocco.”
The police investigation that led to their capture is understood to have been launched two years ago.
The spokesman added: “The two detainees in Spain had sworn loyalty to DAESH (an Arabic acronym for ISIS) and were in direct and constant communication with recruiters and leaders of the terrorist organisation.
“These two individuals had assumed different roles. One focused on brainwashing and radicalising potential jihadists and the other acted as an internet-based charismatic leader, considered a sheikh or spiritual leader by his disciples.”
He added: “The risk the detainees posed was due not only to their capacity in terms of radicalising recruits, but also to their willingness to head to conflict zones and become martyrs or even commit terrorist acts in their countries of origin or the countries where they were living.”
Last month five suspected ISIS terrorists were arrested in a joint operation between police in Spain, Belgium and Germany.
Three were held in Barcelona and Spain’s north African enclave of Melilla with the other two being held in the German city of Wuppertal east of Dusseldorf and the fifth in Brussels.
A Spanish Interior Minister spokesman said at the time they formed a “perfectly organised structure” acting under the orders of ISIS whose objectives including inciting terrorism and choosing extremists they could ally to their cause.
Today it emerged that three Syrian refugees 'turning down a £1000 bribe' and instead tied up a wanted terror suspect who was plotting a jihadist bomb attack in Germany.
When German police arrived to arrest Jaber al-Bakr, 22, who eluded elite cops for two days, in Leipzig’s Paunsdorf district on Monday they found his countrymen had tied him up with electrical cord after tricking him into thinking he was safe.
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