Spanish police arrest 7 terror suspects

Spanish police arrested seven suspected members of a jihadi cell linked to the Islamic State group and Jabhat al-Nusra militants during raids yesterday in the eastern provinces of Valencia and Alicante, and in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta.

Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz said the cell had sent arms, bomb-making materials, and electronic equipment to Syria and Iraq in shipments disguised as humanitarian aid.

The cell is suspected of also supplying funds for IS and Jabhat al-Nusra and of money laundering, a police statement said.

The ringleader was also contacted on several occasion by IS urging him to supply women for combatants in Syria and Iraq to marry, “following guidelines set down by the Islamic State group’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi”, the statement said.

Police said the investigation has uncovered evidence that those arrested provided “logistical support that was essential for the maintenance of terror activities” in Syria and Iraq.

Four of those arrested have Spanish nationality but are of Syrian, Jordanian, and Moroccan ancestry.

Two others are Syrian and Moroccan nationals living in Spain.

The Interior Ministry later said a seventh suspect was arrested yesterday but did not give further details to the suspect’s identity.