Morocco, Spain and the FBI collaborated to arrest Moroccan Islamic State suspect in Barcelona

Spanish police announced the arrest of a Moroccan man in Barcelona for his alleged ties with ISIS on Friday, May 8.

The Spanish Civil Guard carried out the arrest in collaboration with Morocco’s General Directorate of Territorial Surveillance (DGST), and the FBI in the US.

The Civil Guard said in a press release that investigations revealed the suspect violated Spain’s restrictions on movement amid the COVID-9 pandemic.

“The detainee was making public statements about his adherence to Daesh terrorist claims and his hatred of the West in social media profiles,” the statement said.

Investigations supported suspicion of his radicalization and membership in ISIS for “at least four years.” The Civil Guard in Spain consider the suspect a threat to the security of the country as the detainee’s “process of radicalization reached its culminating point.”

The preliminary investigation suggests the man’s approach was in line with ISIS’s “lone wolf” strategy, seeking to undermine the security of Western countries.

The detainee is “totally influenced by Daesh propaganda, having even pledged allegiance to this terrorist organization, a circumstance by which he is considered to be a real threat to security,” the statement concluded.

Morocco maintains leadership in the counterterrorism field, involving all its security apparatuses to fight terrorism threats locally and internationally.

The country works alongside its partners, including the US and Spain, to exchange information on terrorism.

In April 2019, Moroccan security services, in cooperation with Spanish and Moroccan intelligence, arrested a Moroccan terror suspect who was allegedly planning a terror attack in Seville, southern Spain.

The 2019 Global Terror Index ranked Morocco as the 92nd least safe country out of 163 countries, with a score of 1.215.

The ranking makes Morocco safer than the US and France.

Source: Morocco World News