The National Police has arrested five people in the provinces of Valencia, Cáceres, Alicante and Guipúzcoa for integration and collaboration with Daésh, in an international operation that, after more than two years of investigations, involves the dismantling of part of the infrastructure channels. of the jihadist organization in Europe, the Middle East and the Maghreb.
Four of the five detainees have been imprisoned by order of the National Court, as reported this Saturday by the National Police, which details in a statement that these arrests are the result of the second phase of Operation Miya in 2021, which has included the collaboration of Intelligence and Security Services from twelve countries, including Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, the USA and Switzerland, in addition to Europol and, in Spain, the CNI.
In that first phase, the investigators detected that a person of Maghrebi origin residing in Spain was in contact with a jihadist who had entered Europe through the so-called Balkan route.
The objective of that radical was to reach France to commit an attack, to which the person investigated in Spain offered his collaboration.
The specialists in jihadist counterterrorism from the General Information Commissariat located in Switzerland the man who intended to attack in France. He was immediately arrested, as well as that of his collaborator in Spain in March 2022.
In addition, six other people in Europe and the Maghreb were arrested at that time, bringing the total number of detainees to eight. The detainee in our country was sentenced for terrorism crimes to two years in prison, and was released in mid-2023.
This phase revealed that the two main detainees were part of an international network of support for Daesh that was established on three continents and with branches in Afghanistan, the Middle East, the Sahel, the Maghreb and Europe.
Its members were allegedly dedicated to obtaining funds from the commission of crimes in Europe to finance their terrorist activities.
They moved large amounts of money through international shipments and cryptocurrencies, recording the seizure of cryptocurrencies worth almost 200,000 euros.
Likewise, some members of the network tried to indoctrinate new followers in the jihadist creed and support them in the event that they showed their desire to carry out terrorist attacks.
In fact, this network is behind the support in at least two attacks that were finally neutralized by the action of the security services.
According to the Police, one of the detainees in Spain had suffered a strong radicalization in recent months, meaning that in recent weeks he showed his desire to carry out an attack, a circumstance that precipitated the exploitation of this operation.
During the search of his home, short gun ammunition and an ax were found. Manuals for making explosives, manuals for indoctrination of minors and jihadist propaganda have also been seized from those detained.
The General Information Commissariat has carried out 22 operations so far this year in which 54 suspected jihadists have been arrested, 36 of them in nine operations carried out in the last two months.
