A terrorist network linked to Hezbollah dismantled in Barcelona
On Tuesday the authorities arrested three people in the Eixample district of Barcelona for their alleged links to Islamist terrorist activities. The operation, led by the Civil Guard Information Service, focused on Hezbollah's logistical structures and included the search of a property on Calle Castillejos.
According to local sources, those arrested form part of a jihadist network with links to the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shiite militia. Although the investigation is under judicial secrecy by order of the National Court, it is suspected that the detainees acquired material for the manufacture of ‘kamikaze drones’, with the aim of sending them to conflict zones such as Lebanon, Gaza and Israel, to be used in terrorist attacks.
The operation has included additional searches at a commercial establishment in the Verneda neighbourhood, near the headquarters of the National Police in Barcelona, and at a warehouse in the north of Catalonia. According to RTVE, one of the detainees has been sent to provisional prison, while the other two have been released with precautionary measures.
In his court order, the judge stated that ‘the suspect is part of a group of individuals of Lebanese origin based in Spain and Germany, linked to varying degrees to Hezbollah’. ‘Through the exploitation of Spanish companies, they have acquired a large quantity of components and materials whose final destination would be Hezbollah in Lebanon’, he added.
This blow against the terrorist infrastructure in Barcelona coincides with Israel's recent elimination of Hassan Ali Mahmoud Badir, an operative of Hezbollah's 3900 unit and the Iranian Quds Force, in an attack in Beirut. According to the Israeli army, Badir had been coordinating attacks against Israeli civilians together with Hamas.
An operation with a European reach
The authorities have revealed that this action is closely related to a previous operation carried out in July last year at the same address, in collaboration with the German police, with the aim of dismantling another network manufacturing drones for Hezbollah. On that occasion, the partner of one of the detainees was arrested for alleged terrorist links, although she was later released. However, according to investigative sources, she has resumed her partner's activity.
This operation is one of a series of arrests made in Europe in recent months. In March, eleven alleged jihadists were arrested, ten of them in Barcelona and its metropolitan area, and one in Piacenza (Italy), for inciting and organising terrorist acts.
Investigations are still ongoing, and the authorities have not ruled out further arrests in the coming days.