The suspect allegedly used social networks to find new ISIS recruits.
Rabat – Spain’s Civil Guard arrested a Moroccan man earlier this week for his alleged involvement in terror activities linked to ISIS in Alicante, south Valencia.
Sputnik News cited a statement from the Spanish Civil Guard on Friday saying that the Moroccan man was engaged in recruiting youth for ISIS through the internet.
“Agents of the Information Service of the Civil Guard, with the support of various units of the body and Europol, carried out last Wednesday, October 20, the arrest in Aleria of a Moroccan citizen for his alleged terrorist activities,” the statement said.
Cooperation between Europol and the Spanish Civil Guard enabled security services to detect a series of recruitment activities with the aim of “radicalizing young people for terrorist purposes.”
The Moroccan suspect lives irregularly in Spain, where he looked for people interested in joining ISIS through social networks.
The suspect used private messaging applications to connect with potential recruits.
“These functions of radicalization over other people were materialized with the practice that he exercised daily from his home, and it could be considered that he was virtually integrated into ISIS,” the statement said.
The Spanish Civil Guard described the cooperation between Europol and Spanish services as important to the fight against terrorism in conflict zones and beyond.
The suspect spread the “violent vision” of ISIS, claiming COVID-19 was a “punishment against the West,” Sputnik News reported.
Police also arrested one of the people allegedly “radicalized” by the suspect.
Security services released the second suspect after taking his statement.
Spain and Morocco share regular cooperation against terrorism, collaborating earlier this month to arrest several Moroccans for sympathizing with ISIS.
Another recent arrest was in July, when Spain’s police arrested a Moroccan man for “glorifying terrosim.”
Earlier this month, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Spanish Congress of Deputies adopted a security convention between Morocco and Spain in the fight against crime.
The Council of Ministers in Spain approved the convention on September 8.
The convention seeks to address security challenges resulting from human trafficking, terrorism, and other organized crime.
