Hamed, his real name, like many of his compatriots, traveled from Morocco to Turkey after the proclamation of the so-called caliphate and the founding of the Islamic State under the leadership of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2014. His goal was to become a fighter to join the terrorist group in Syria. According to Spanish police investigators, “for years he tried to cross the Turkish border to get into the conflict zone, but he failed.” And so he became what experts call “another frustrated jihadist.” , who did not reach the front. In March 2022, he was arrested in a town in northern Switzerland on the border with France, where he was allegedly planning to carry out an attack, according to Spanish investigators who managed to monitor his movements and alert Swiss authorities. Together with him and in parallel, in a double synchronized operation in both countries, a 30-year-old compatriot of his residing in San Sebastián, “one of the radicalized individuals included in the Spanish cyber surveillance systems,” was arrested. Who was the one who put the agents of the National Police's General Information Commissariat (CGI) on the trail of the frustrated fighter?
That “prevented the attack” – according to sources in the investigation, without specifying what nature – and was the first phase of Operation Miya, which uncovered an international jihadist network that provided logistical and economic support to those willing to go into hiding . act and carry out an attack, even if, like Hamed, he had to cross the entire Balkan route, the same one through which many refugees traveled from Turkey to Europe via Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia, Croatia or Slovenia.
“Crossing the Balkans is not easy if you are alone,” the researchers analyze. “You need a place to sleep, a place to eat, clothes to wear, money to move, to communicate… But when you have a network, things change,” they explain. “That is why they are building a logistical support network for a particular terrorist who, in this case, was already very close to his target and would not have been able to reach it without all this support,” they emphasize. Spanish police point out another fact: the frustrated combatant “wasn’t on anyone’s radar” until he was discovered, geolocated and identified.
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“The fates of Afghanistan or the Sahel states, where the Islamic State continues its path, are becoming too harsh to go to jihad now, which is why many are choosing to operate on European soil and look for support networks that are consolidated are.” the Internet”, explain the Spanish investigators who, last week, in a second phase of the same operation, dismantled a network of 13 members with branches in 12 countries. This support network, which was founded by the Spanish side – with five detainees – only for reasons of Confidentiality has been disclosed, has highlighted that the infrastructure required to carry out attacks is coordinated through these encrypted social networks and financially supported by cryptocurrencies. “About 200,000 euros were seized, but this network has moved millions of euros in recent years and money directly sent to conflict areas such as Afghanistan,” the police say.
Researchers warn of a qualitative leap in these new Islamist organizations due to this extensive interconnection of so many countries and, above all, due to the aspect of economic financing. These are much larger amounts, money that they earn “from criminal activities,” they emphasize; and they assure that it could be partly due to money laundering related to drug trafficking. They also recall that “a year and a half ago, the financial chief of the Islamic State was arrested, which had been financed, among other things, from Spain.” It is no longer a question of financing using the traditional hawala method, a system in which money is sent on the trust of intermediaries, since an amount is sent through mutual acquaintances.
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After spending more than a year in prison last week, the agents of the Commissariat of General Information arrested again in San Sebastián the person who had put them on the trail of the frustrated jihadist arrested in Switzerland. “But this time we no longer arrested 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 provided “accommodation, connections and facilities of all kinds.” the potential terrorist, in this case traveling along the Balkan route. “In mid-2021, when he was still in Spain for a few months, he became radicalized, apologized, glorified, had contacts with people who could be of interest to a level of risk,” explain the agents about his jihadist development.
Along with this man, imprisoned in the Basque Country, which was the network's main Spanish connection, four other suspected jihadists fell, “all North Africans and in their thirties, with the exception of a young man of 20, one of them married; “All of them have normal jobs, some of them already have enough roots in Spain,” they explain. They were in Cáceres, Valencia (two of them) and Alicante. “They knew each other from thematic internet forums; “They first exchanged ideas, requests, and then information, and later changed channels until they formed a secure network through which they could plan and coordinate to provide logistical support to anyone who needed it,” the researchers explain. “All communications they maintain are encrypted in jihadist environments via 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 these types of support networks in which there are “no ringleaders.”
More than 40 people were arrested in two months
The police operation was triggered last week as part 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 start of the war between Israel and Hamas last year. October 7th and the raising of the terrorist threat level in Spain to “4 reinforced” (from a maximum of 5).
“The members of this network in Spain indoctrinated more people, people from their own environment, and one of them repeatedly expressed the desire to act, to take action,” justify the agents who used “a short weapon” when searching the houses. “We found ammunition, an axe, instructions for making explosives, indoctrination of minors and jihadist propaganda.” And they remember that there have been no planned attacks in Europe for years, 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 this desire.
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