Spain Dismantles Islamic State Recruitment And Indoctrination Network

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The Central Investigation Court number 1 and the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the National High Court headed up a counter-terrorism Guardia Civil operation resulting in the arrest of four people in different locations in Spain – two in Melilla and the other two in the provinces of Barcelona and Girona.

The two arrested in Melilla are responsible for the creation and administration of various Internet platforms through which they disseminated various forms of terrorist propaganda, in particular that related to DAESH. This material was edited and translated to Spanish by those arrested in order to reach a wider audience. Taking advantage of the success of the virtual platform, they sought to justify terrorist actions, with particular emphasis on the act of martyrdom.

The two men arrested, whose policies fell in line with the strategy of the terrorist group DAESH, were engaged in the recruitment of women who, following the opportune training process, ended up forming part of this terrorist group.

Furthermore, their recruitment activities were not limited to a virtual environment, but extended to private meetings in homes where they showed potential Muslim recruits the most up-to-date promotional videos in favour of DAESH, with the aim of indoctrinating them so that they could eventually join this terrorist group in regions of conflict. Some of these young people had already started their preliminary training to subsequently deploy to regions in which the terrorists groups are operating.

The Guardia Civil is investigating the connections between the two people arrested in Catalonia with those arrested in Melilla. These arrests took place in the provinces of Barcelona and Girona. The two men arrested were undertaking intense pro-Jihadi activities of their own and, in turn, acted on Facebook administered out of Melilla.

In this case, the profile of the detainees was different, since one of them corresponded to an editor who prolifically edited and disseminated video-graphic material designed to recruit new Jihadists, while the other had a typical profile of a lone wolf, in other words, he had gone from consuming pro-terrorist propaganda to carrying out an intense campaign of similar characteristics to recruit others. He had defined himself in a documentary on Islamic radicalisation for the television channel CNN as a sympathiser of the “Islamic State” residing in a Western society.

The Guardia Civil is presently searching the homes of those arrested.

The operation remains ongoing.

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