– SPAIN’S M11 AFTERMATH ARRESTS

 

After the Madrid Trains Bombing, on 03/11/2004, named by the Spaniards M11 (March 11), the Spanish authorities took much more seriously the Islamic terror threat. Spain waged a large wave of arrests of many suspects who were related to the social circle of the M11 perpetrators or to their economic and religious activities. The authorities also arrested crime gangs who provided a convenient infrastructure to terror such as money laundering, forging documents and drug trafficking.

The detainees were, basically, related to three groups;

A. The remnants and fringes of Al Qaeda network in Spain which operated from the end of the 90s’ and led by Imad Yarkas. The network provided, probably unknowingly, logistic support to The 9/11. Most of its members were already arrested in the late 2001 and the beginning 0f 2002 and were in jail at the time of the M11.

B. The second group of few hundreds from the social circle of the M11 perpetrators or to their economic and religious activities, many of them operated mainly in crime gangs. 

C. A group of North Africans, who called themselves the MARTYRS FOR MOROCCO – MFM, Led by Faisal Allouch and Mohamed Achraf. 30 members of the group planned to drive a truck packed with 500kg (1100lb) of Goma 2, a kind of compressed dynamite, into Spains’s High Court in Madrid about two months after the M11, to kill hundreds of staff and destroy evidence connected with anti-terrorist trials. Most of the group was arrested in Operation Nova on 10/18/2004.

Individuals from the three groups knew each other, especially the group who committed the M11 and the MARTYRS FOR MOROCCO.

Eventually most of the detainees were released without being charged. Others were charged on crime related offences and only few dozens were put on trial for direct terror charges.

* Arrests related to Al Qaeda (AQ) network in Spain.

*AQ Spanish Logistic Cell – On 01/17/2005 the Spanish investigating Judge Baltasar Garzon indicted an Al Qaeda cell which operated in Spain and provided logistical support and false documents, through Ramzi Binalshibh, to The 9/11 perpetrators (see – AQ-Logistic ).

* Arrests related to M11 bombing in Spain.

* MADRID TERROR SUSPECTS – The Madrid terror suspects were a group of 12 Muslims, living in Madrid, Spain, who were connected through social, family or work circles to the Madrid Trains Bombing perpetrators and were arrested between 03/13-19/2004 as possible suspects in the heinous terror attack (see – Madrid 04.07.04 ).

* Irun  Arrests – Spain interior ministry announced, on 12/09/2004, police have arrested in the Basque town Irun, near Spain’s border with France, two suspects related to the Madrid Trains Bombing (see – Irun Arrests ).

* Haddad Brothers Arrests –Twelve men with alleged links to terrorism and some of the suspects in 2004 Madrid Trains Bombing were arrested, on Friday 04/01/2005. The arrests came on the same day that a Moroccan man, Youssef Belhadj, was extradited from Belgium to Spain and were, probably, coordinated to the same date (see – Haddad-Brothers ).  

* Arrests related to MFM plot in Spain.

* BARCELONA 09/2004 ARRESTS – On 09/14/2004 night the Barcelona police arrested 10 Pakistanis at an apartment and a warehouse in Barcelona suspected of providing logistical support, in the past, for Islamic terrorists outside Spain (see – Barcelona 09/2004 Arrests ).

 

• 11/2005 -THE MOROCCAN NETWORK  
  06/2005 -THE BARCELONA NET 
  04/2005 -SPAHISH AL QAEDA ON TRIAL  

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