Moroccan intelligence tip-off leads to arrest of radicalised national in Spain

Rabat, Morocco (PANA) - Thanks to close cooperation with the Moroccan security services, the Spanish services have arrested a Moroccan who had pledged allegiance to terrorist organisations and was allegedly planning attacks in Europe.

Spanish newspapers revealed on Friday that a joint operation between Morocco's Directorate General for Territorial Surveillance (DGST) and the Spanish police led to the arrest of the man, aged 25, on Wednesday 1 November in Terrassa, near Barcelona.

According to the newspapers, quoting the Spanish National Police, the suspect, was steeped in "jihadist" ideology.

He is accused of disseminating digital content glorifying terrorism and hatred, and inciting dangerous criminal acts on European soil.

The source adds that this operation is part of the security cooperation between the Moroccan security services and their Spanish counterparts, who are taking a proactive approach to countering terrorist threats at regional and international level.

Last October, Morocco's DGST warned German intelligence services in good time that a German-Egyptian Islamist extremist was preparing a big terrorist plot, sources in Rabat reported on Thursday.

The vigilance of the Moroccan services enabled Germany to avoid carnage. 

Earlier, the DGST's alert to the German security services concerning Tarik S. S prevented the worst from happening.

On the basis of this alert, the German police disabled the Islamist who was active on the web from Duisburg, where he lives. He was arrested on 24 October in Essen, in western Germany.

According to information provided by the Moroccan security services to their German counterparts, the suspect is a former Daech fighter and was planning to carry out criminal activities in Germany on behalf of the terrorist organisation.

According to sources close to the case, the suspect was planning to carry out a number of attacks, including an attack using a ram truck in Germany.

Last April, the Director General of the Moroccan DGST, Abdellatif Hammouchi, received in Rabat the Director of the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Thomas Haldenwang, accompanied by his principal deputies.

The two senior officials agreed to strengthen relations their security services.

-0- PANA AD/JSG/SOC/BBA/MA 4Nov2023