New blow to jihadism thanks to cooperation between Morocco and Spain

The current good relations between Spain and Morocco continue to bear fruit in terms of security and counterterrorism. Thanks to this bilateral cooperation, the "largest jihadist structure in Spain" in the area of recruiting young people on social networks has been dismantled, according to RTVE.

The operation has resulted in the arrest of two people in Zamora and Valencia, who have already been remanded in custody at the request of the Public Prosecutor's Office for alleged crimes of membership of a terrorist organisation, indoctrination and recruitment of minors. As reported by the Spanish media, these arrests have taken place within the framework of preliminary proceedings which remain secret and which were initiated in November last year in the Central Court of Instruction 6 of the Audiencia Nacional by means of a report by the Guardia Civil for the interception of communications.

This new blow to jihadism has been possible thanks to the joint action of the Information Service of the Guardia Civil of Spain and the Direction Générale de la Surveillance du Territoire (DGST) of Morocco and highlights the importance of the bilateral partnership between the two countries to face a common enemy.

The Guardia Civil began investigating in 2022 the two detainees who, despite being in different Spanish provinces, operated in a coordinated manner to recruit and indoctrinate young people in jihadism through social networks. This indoctrination was aimed, above all, at 18-year-olds and minors. To do so, the detainees used the main social networks used by people in that age range.

Both developed and published the terrorist content in Spanish and selected the users to indoctrinate, who then became part of a private group managed by the two arrested men. The group included dozens of people from more than ten different provinces in Spain.

Furthermore, in addition to carrying out virtual activities, investigations have detected graffiti in the streets praising the Daesh terrorist group, such as 'Dawlat al islam baquiyah', which means 'Islamic State remains and expands'.