Guardia Civil arrest an individual in Melilla for his membership of Jihadi network involved in financing, recruitment and shipment of combatants to conflict zones

The Guardia Civil has several ongoing investigations, some of which stretch back to 2012, regarding several residents of Melilla, who, without even the most basic financial training, held down responsible posts in Danish companies.

The business network is so large and complex that after sending an International Letter Rogatory to the Danish authorities, so far a total of 24 different companies have been identified, from which it is estimated that an amount in excess of 8 million euros has been fraudulently concealed.

As a result of the intense activity of this recruitment network, on an international scale and probably the largest broken up in our country, the incorporation of at least 10 fighters of various nationalities have been sent to different conflict zones, which included Danish, German and Spanish citizens.

The development of these investigations was made possible by the close cooperation between the Guardia Civil and the Danish Intelligence Service (PET), the Copenhagen Police, the Moroccan General Directorate for Territorial Surveillance (DGST), EUROPOL and the Spanish National Intelligence Centre (Spanish acronym: CNI). Furthermore, for the application of the legislation on money laundering and the prevention of financing terrorism, there has been considerable collaboration from the Spanish prevention system bodies that deal with these matters.

The investigators are currently trying to establish the full extent of the network that was hidden behind the numerous companies, social network profiles and virtual identities, along with the specific activities related to sending combatants to conflict zones where they may have participated.

Following the arrest of this individual, the Guardia Civil has opened two files, with the aim of collecting evidence of his intense activity on the Internet and social networks, through which he established a high number of contacts with individuals both in Spain and further afield. Similarly, with the aim of extending this investigation, it is expected that statements will be requested from a number of people yet to be determined, and for International Letters Rogatory to be issued to ensure the cooperation of the judicial authorities of other countries.

The operation was carried out under the supervision of Central Investigation Court Number 1 in coordination with the Public Prosecutor's Office of the National High Court.

Since 26 June, 2015, the date on which the Ministry of Home Affairs raised the Counter-Terrorism Alert Level to level 4 (Spanish acronym: NAA-4), law enforcement agencies have arrested a total of 173 Jihadist terrorists in operations carried out in Spain and abroad, and a total of 218 since the beginning of 2015.

The Ministry of Home Affairs sends out a reminder that, through the initiative STOP RADICALISMOS, citizens can collaborate through a series of channels open to them so that, in a confidential and secure manner, they can notify the State law enforcement agencies of possible cases of radicalisation in their vicinity through the web page www.stop-radicalismos.es, the mobile phone app for citizen security Alertcops and the free hotline 900 822 066.