Hand in hand, the Moroccan police and the Spanish police succeeded in dismantling a cell affiliated with the Islamic State organization (IS). One of the three suspects was arrested by special forces from the Directorate General for Territorial Surveillance (DGST) in Chtouka Aït Baha, a rural region in southern Morocco, the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations (BCIJ) said in a communicated. This man was taken into custody.
Simultaneously, two other members of the same cell were arrested by the Spanish authorities in Almeria, Andalusia (southern Spain), the statement added. In Madrid, a police source confirmed to AFP the information from the Moroccan police, without wanting to give details.
Recruitment and enlistment
According to the Moroccan BCIJ, the investigation showed that the suspects had pledged allegiance to IS and were working to spread and promote “extremist ideas for recruitment and enlistment purposes”. “The defendants have shown their willingness to get involved in terrorist operations because they cannot join the strongholds of Daesh (acronym for the Islamic State group) in the Sahel region,” says the Moroccan press release. “They maintained links with fighters responsible for recruiting and facilitating access to volunteers to fight in this area,” according to the same source.
If the Cherifian kingdom has been spared in recent years by violence linked to jihadist groups, its security services regularly report anti-terrorist crackdowns and foiled plans for attacks. Since 2002, the Moroccan police have dismantled more than 2,000 “terrorist cells” and arrested more than 3,500 people in cases related to “terrorism”, according to the BCIJ.