Spanish police detain two set of brothers of Moroccan decent for terror related offences

Spanish police are deployed in the El Principe suburb of Ceuta, hours after they arrested four alleged jihadists. Photograph: Reduan/EPA

Police in Spain’s north African enclave of Ceuta arrested two pairs of brothers on Saturday suspected of belonging to a militant Islamist network that may have been planning an attack on the Spanish mainland.

Spain has stepped up security as well as efforts to prevent the radicalisation of young Muslim citizens following attacks in Paris this month in which Islamist gunmen killed 17 people.


Interior minister Jorge Fernández Díaz said: “These are two pairs of very radicalised brothers who are highly trained militarily, physically and mentally, and are prepared to carry out an attack, and ready, according to the police, to blow themselves up in the act.”
The minister said there were many parallels with the two brothers who attacked the Paris office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo earlier this month, shooting dead 12 people, but did not elaborate.

El Mundo quoted Díaz as saying the four men were Moroccan but held Spanish citizenship. In searches carried out along with the arrests, police found combat gear and knives, he added.

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