Guardia Civil arrest woman in Girona for activities to recruit and send Jihadi terrorists to conflict zones

Officers from the Intelligence Service of the Guardia Civil arrested a 21-year old woman, of Spanish nationality, in Palamós (Girona) on Tuesday, 17 October, who was born and resident in the town, for carrying out activities of self-radicalisation, and the recruitment of Jihadi terrorists to then send them on to conflict zones.

The young woman formed part of an international network of DAESH-affiliated individuals and activities, that had been detected by international information and intelligence services some two years ago. During the years of its most intense activities of recruitment and dissemination of radical content, DAESH established a rigorous and intense campaign aimed, to a large extent, at certain groups of women, with the aim of subsequently organising their travel to conflict zones. The high degree of vulnerability of these groups meant access to a significant source of followers for the terrorist group, as happened to the group of which Tuesday morning's detainee was a member, among others.

In the case of the young woman detained in Girona, and similarly to other models of radicalisation, her path to extremism became entrenched over the last two years through a combination, on the one hand, of a model of self-teaching through the consumption of Jihadist propaganda and, on the other hand, through her interaction, via social media, with other people, mainly women, who decisively contributed to her take-up of the Jihadist ideology.

This radicalisation process gradually led her to succumb to the most severe demands of the Salafist doctrine, both in relation to the use of the strict dress code, which was extremely unusual in the circles in which the detainee moved, and in her progressive isolation from public activity, which had stepped up alarmingly to the point at which she was rarely involved in any public activity.

The arrests of several people she was in contact with meant that she gradually stepped up security measures in relation to her activity, which meant it was more difficult to closely monitor her activities.

As regards the self-indoctrination of the detainee, the investigation showed how the closed groups that she was a member of devoted most of their activities to manipulating the will of their followers with the aim of completing their transfer to conflict zones, which was not only carried out under the subterfuge of striking propaganda on the positive side of life in this region, but which also introduced elements of very violent content, highlighting constant videos and references to all types of executions and aggressive actions.

The collaboration of the FBI in the United States was fundamental in identifying the criminal conduct of the young woman arrested on Tuesday morning in Palamós (Girona). As a result of the hard work of the Guardia Civil and FBI investigators, the existence of other individuals was determined, whose conduct was the subject of judicial intervention, and which led to several arrests being effected. In one of the cases, this took the form of the arrest of a woman in November 2015 in the province of Barcelona, accused of collaborating with the terrorist group DAESH.

Ministerio del InteriorIn this regard, back in June 2016, and as a result of the said collaboration with the US authorities, an individual was arrested in the United States who had maintained close ties with the detainee, and whose arrested led to them both aborting their attempt to travel to Syria.

The Guardia Civil is searching the home of the detainee to gather evidence that will enable officers to determine her level of involvement in the activities of terrorist groups that she supported, as well as her possible contacts both in Spain and in other countries.

The operation was carried out under the instructions of Central Examining 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 206 Jihadi terrorists in operations carried out in Spain and abroad and a total of 249 since the start 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 citizens security alerts 'Alertcops' and the free hotline 900 822 066.

Non official translation