17 suspected Isil supporters arrested in Spanish counter-terror raids

Police in Spain on Tuesday arrested 17 men connected to a suspected network of Islamic State supporters, five of whom are accused of forming a terror cell planning to launch attacks in Barcelona, with the rest suspected of having stolen passports from tourists to support the aspiring jihadists.

The group had been the subject of covert investigation for 18 months, Catalonia’s regional police force said, meaning the probe started at a similar time to the terrorist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils of August 2017 in which 16 died.

Speaking after the raids, Miquel Buch, Catalonia’s interior chief, said there had been no risk “at any time” of the group pulling off an attack as they were being closely tracked by the police with support from Spain’s CNI secret service.

“Those arrested wanted to commit attacks, but that doesn’t mean they had the actual capacity to carry out a terrorist act”, Mr Buch said.

Five men aged between 33 and 44 were believed to have made up the hardcore of the cell. Police said three of them are from Algeria, while one is Libyan the other Iraqi. All of the suspects lived in Barcelona.

The other 12 arrested in the raids in Barcelona and the Catalan town of Igualada comprise Algerian, Spanish, Egyptian, Iraqi, Moroccan and Lebanese nationals.

The 12 men are suspected of being part of a criminal support cell and having carried out 369 thefts and robberies, mostly in downtown Barcelona, as well as being accused of criminal conspiracy, document fraud and public health offences.

The gang’s alleged criminal activity focused on the tens of millions of tourists that visit Barcelona each year, and is believed to have funded the alleged terrorist cell, as well as being a source of fake ID papers for jihadi terrorists moving around Europe.

Police sources quoted by Spanish newspaper El Mundo said that passports and ID cards stolen from tourists by the pickpockets were passed on to extremists in need of false documents as part of a pan-European terrorist network.

“The majority of those investigated are defined by a radical profile and adherence to the jihadi movement’s dogma. The group supported the principal doctrines and actions of the jihadi movement and consumed large amounts of publications containing the precepts of Isil,” the Catalan police said after the operation.