Police said Tuesday they had arrested an 18-year-old Spaniard of Moroccan origin who had engaged in “intensive (online) efforts to encourage terrorism” and had ties with other radical jihadists abroad.
The youth was arrested in Barcelona on March 16 on suspicion of links to the Islamic State (IS) group, with a Guardia Civil police statement indicating he had “extensive connections” with other extremists in Asia, Europe and North America.
Police began investigating the teenager, who lived at home with his parents and siblings in Barcelona, early last year after noticing he was “using encrypted instant messaging platforms to express support for IS” and engaging in an “intense propaganda effort to encourage terrorism”.
They decided to arrest hi
m after Swedish police rounded up four people with extremist ties who were preparing an attack and with whom he had been in contact, a police source told AFP.
“Four individuals were arrested in Sweden on suspicion of planning an attack, believed to be imminent, and he was linked to them,” the source said.
On March 7, Sweden’s Sapo security service said it had arrested the four in Stockholm for preparing attacks “linked to violent Islamist extremism”.
“He had been touch with them for some time, mainly online, exchanging terror manuals and discussing possible targets,” the source said.
Through his online profiles, the teenager spread “a great deal of jihadist content about terrorist activities and about materials for making explosives”, the police statement said.
The suspect had been in touch with an individual in Canada “who was also planning an attack,” but was arrested about a year ago.
“It was the same sort of relationship as with the Swedes, they were in touch online and exchanged terror manuals and discussed possible attacks,” he said.
Police did not find any evidence of similar contact with people in Spain.
The youth observed “strict security measures”, using tools that let him operate anonymously online, offering other jihadist sympathisers “training and instruction in terrorism”.
Investigators also found he was using cryptocurrencies, saying they “did not rule out his involvement in funding terror activities”.
He was brought before a Spanish court on March 19 and remanded in custody.
Police believe he was radicalised in isolation with material he found online
“It’s quite common. Nowadays many young people become radicalised through jihadist propaganda on various websites, without anyone encouraging them,” the source said.
“They self-radicalise and that’s what we think happened to him.”
The police operation was carried out with the collaboration of Spain’s CNI intelligence agency, Sweden’s Sapo, France’s domestic intelligence agency DGSI and the European policing agency Europol.
Spain police arrested 78 suspected jihadists last year, the highest number since 2005, according to a report published Tuesday by the Collective of Victims of Terrorism (COVITE) and the International Observatory for Terrorism Studies.
The age of the suspected Islamic extremists who have been arrested in Spain is getting increasingly younger, according to the report, which said six of those arrested last year were minors and 21 were between the ages of 18 and 24.
