Hamed, his fictitious name, traveled from Morocco to Turkey, as did many other of his compatriots after the proclamation of the so-called caliphate and the creation of the Islamic State led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2014. His goal was to become a fighter, joining the terrorist group in Syria. According to Spanish police investigators, he “spent years trying to cross the Turkish border to reach the conflict zone, but he did not succeed.” And he thus became what experts call “another frustrated jihadist”, those who have not reached the front line. In March 2022 he was arrested in a town in northern Switzerland bordering France, where he was allegedly heading to commit an attack, according to Spanish investigators, who managed to monitor his movements and alerted the Swiss authorities. Along with him, and in parallel, in a double synchronized operation in both countries, a 30-year-old compatriot of his, resident in San Sebastián, was arrested, “one of the radicalized people included in the Spanish cyber surveillance systems”, who was the one who put the agents of the General Information Commissariat (CGI) of the National Police on the trail of the frustrated combatant.
That “prevented the attack” – according to sources in the investigation, without specifying what type – and was the first phase of Operation Miya, which revealed an international jihadist network that offered logistical and economic support to those who were willing to go into hiding. action and commit an attack, even if to do so he had to, like Hamed, cross the entire Balkan route, the same one that many refugees traveled from Turkey to Europe through Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia, Croatia or Slovenia.
“Crossing the Balkans is not easy if you are alone,” the researchers analyze. “You need somewhere to sleep, where to eat, clothes to wear, money to move, to communicate… But if you have a network, things change,” they explain. “That's why what they do is create a logistical support network for a specific terrorist, who in this case was already very close to his destination, and who would not have been able to reach him without all that support,” they point out. The Spanish police highlight another fact: the frustrated combatant “was off everyone's radars,” until he was detected, geolocated and identified by them.
“The destinies of Afghanistan or the Sahel countries, where the Islamic State continues its path, become too harsh to go now to do jihad, which is why many choose to try to act on European soil looking for those support networks. that are forged on the Internet,” explain the Spanish investigators, who dismantled last week, in a second phase of that same operation, a network of 13 members with branches in 12 countries. This support network, which has only been revealed by the Spanish side – with five detainees – for reasons of confidentiality, has highlighted that the infrastructure necessary to carry out attacks is coordinated through these encrypted social networks and is financially supported by cryptocurrencies. . “About 200,000 euros have been seized, but this network has moved millions of euros in recent years, and has sent money directly to conflict zones like Afghanistan,” the police say.
Researchers warn of a qualitative leap in these new Islamist organizations due to this extensive interconnection between so many countries and, above all, due to the aspect of economic financing. These are much larger amounts, money they obtain “from criminal activity,” they point out; and they assure that, in part, “it may come from the laundering of drug trafficking.” They also remember that “a year and a half ago, the head of finance of the Islamic State was arrested, which had been financed from Spain, among other countries.” It is no longer financing with the traditional method of hawala, a money sending system based on the trust of intermediaries, because an amount is sent through common acquaintances.
What affects the most is what happens closest. So you don't miss anything, subscribe.
Subscribe
Last week, and after having spent more than a year in prison, the agents of the General Information Commissariat arrested again in San Sebastián the person who put them on the trail of the frustrated jihadist arrested in Switzerland. “But this time we were no longer arresting him for radicalization, but for belonging to a terrorist organization,” the investigators clarify, after discovering that he was part of a network that financed and gave “shelter, connections and facilities of all kinds” to the potential terrorist, in this case on its journey along the Balkan route. “In mid-2021, when he had still been in Spain for a few months, he was radicalized, who made apologies, glorified, had contacts with people who could be of interest up to a level of risk,” the agents explain about his jihadist evolution.
Along with that man detained in the Basque Country, which was the main Spanish connection of the network, four other alleged jihadists fell, “all North Africans and in their thirties, except for a young man of 20 years old, one of them married; all with normal jobs, some already with enough roots in Spain,” they detail. They were located in Cáceres, Valencia (two of them) and Alicante. “They knew each other from thematic Internet forums; They began by sharing ideas, desires, then information, and, later, they changed channels until they formed a secure network for themselves through which they could plan and coordinate to provide logistical support to whoever required it,” the researchers explain. “All communications they maintain are encrypted, in jihadist environments, through encrypted social networks,” they add. “They are united by their ideology. They don't know each other physically. They can be found thousands of kilometers away. But content is sent and their ideology is reinforced,” they add, showing the horizontality of this type of support networks, in which “there are no ringleaders.”
More than 40 arrested in two months
The police action was precipitated last week, within the framework of a Campaign of a dozen anti-jihadist operations that have resulted in more than 40 detainees in the last two months alone, coinciding with the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7 and the elevation to “4 reinforced” (above a maximum of 5) of the level of terrorist threat in Spain.
“The members of this network in Spain were indoctrinating more people, people from their own environment, and one of them repeatedly expressed the desire to act, to take action,” justify the agents, who in the searches of the homes found “short weapon ammunition, an axe, manuals for making explosives, indoctrination of minors and jihadist propaganda.” And they remember that for years there have been no planned attacks in Europe, but that terrorists act when they can, how they can, and where they can at the moment that seems appropriate to them or they feel that desire.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_
#support #network #frustrated #jihadists