Marruecos desmantela una célula de Daesh que estaba vinculada a un yihadista detenido en España

The Moroccan police on Tuesday dismantled a cell presented as loyal to the Daesh terrorist group that had links to another network that was dismantled in December last year in a joint operation by the Moroccan and Spanish authorities.

According to a statement from the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ, anti-terrorist body), the current cell was composed of four individuals, aged between 21 and 26, who were arrested in the province of Nador (in the north-east of the country).

One of those arrested is the brother of a fighter in Daesh's ranks, the note said, adding that the four arrested were planning to carry out attacks on "sensitive places" in the country, which are not specified.

The detainees, the statement said, had "close links" with members of another cell dismantled on 4 December 2019 jointly by the Moroccan and Spanish authorities. The leader of that cell (a 31-year-old man of Moroccan nationality) was then arrested by the Spanish police in Guadalajara and was considered to be the "animator" of the cell, with a great deal of activity in social networks and messaging groups aimed at accessing, downloading and distributing multimedia material with content in favour of Daesh. The other three members of the 2019 cell were arrested in a synchronized fashion by Moroccan troops in Nador province.

Spain and Morocco have always stressed the exemplary nature of their security cooperation with the synchronized dismantling of terrorist networks and the continuous exchange of data between the security services of the two countries.