Spain: National Police Force Dismantles Radical Anarchist Group In Madrid

Within the framework of “Operation Ice”, Spanish police officers from the Information Brigade of the National Police Force in Madrid have dismantled, the group known as ‘Straight Edge’, with anarchist tendencies, resulting in the arrest of five people.

This group is considered to be responsible for attacks with incendiary devices on four bank branches in Madrid. Although this group principally carried out their criminal activities in Madrid, they are also thought to be the material authors of an attack on a bank and another on a shopping center in Barcelona.

Those arrested will be brought before the National High Court and are accused of the offences of belonging to a criminal organisation with terrorist aims, criminal damage and the glorification of terrorism. Four of those arrested live in Madrid and the fifth in Las Matas, a municipality of Madrid.

In addition to these arrests, officers from the Information Brigade of the National Police Force in Madrid proceeded, with the corresponding court order from the Central Court number 3 of the National High Court, to search several properties. The officers found material there for the manufacture of explosive artefacts, various amounts of gunpowder, fuses, as well as manuals for preparing home-made bombs. They also seized documentation and propaganda relating to the terrorist gang Grupos Anarquistas Coordinados (GAC) [Coordinated Anarchist Groups], the material authors, among other terrorist actions, of the bombs placed in the Basílica de El Pilar (Zaragoza) and La Almudena Cathedral (Madrid).

The discovery of this material confirms the links between ‘Straight Edge’ and the Grupos Anarquistas Coordinados (GAC), particularly with individuals from the GAC who were arrested by the National Police Force on 30 March within the framework of “Operation Piñata”.