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Spanish Police Arrest 4 Suspected of ISIS Activity | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Spanish police. REUTERS/Albert Gea


Spain’s Interior Ministry announced on Monday that police have arrested four people suspected of having links to an illegal migration network believed to have been used by ISIS to move militants to Europe, including those involved in last year’s deadly attacks in the French capital.

A ministry statement said the four had links with the so-called “Syrian refugee route” that ISIS is thought to have used to get the Paris attackers to Europe via the Greek island of Leros in October 2015.

Police believe the four arrested Monday had contacts with two extremists arrested in Salzburg, Austria, shortly after the November 13, 2015 coordinated attacks that left 130 people dead.

Two were arrested in towns in northwestern Spain and two others in the southeastern city of Almeria.
No details on their identities were released.

Monday’s statement came a day after the Spanish Interior Ministry said police have arrested a Spanish citizen in Madrid on suspicion of belonging to ISIS.

The ministry said the man of Palestinian origin planned on joining the jhadist group in Syria.

The accused is resident in the province of Las Palmas on the Spanish Canary Islands.

Since Spain raised its national security threat alert in 2015 in response to the ISIS attacks in Paris, police have arrested 164 people suspected of militant activity.