Spanish police collar suspected Daesh recruiters in Madrid and Barcelona

TWO Moroccan men suspected of “recruiting young Muslims with the ultimate aim of forming an ‘army of followers’ invisible to police control,” were arrested in Madrid and Roda de Ter, around 100 km north of Barcelona, on Saturday November 19.

The unnamed individuals were involved in disseminating “all kinds of radical propaganda and content aimed at instilling terror in western societies,” according to the National Police.

They were allegedly active on the internet, using social networks to radicalise and recruit new devotees to their cause.

The Interior Ministry added that they “formed independent, but coordinated” cells, which were “potentially dangerous, directed and controlled by Daesh and in a state of pre-activation for the commission of terrorist attacks in Spain,” and they are also accused of spreading “very radical, extremely crude” content, including videos of “violent acts.”

They had publicised an oath of loyalty to the terrorist organisation and were living in a “state of total isolation,” cutting of contact with the outside world in favour of an existence based in “the virtual realm, via their radical jihadi profiles.”

The arrests bring the total number of individuals apprehended by Spanish authorities since 2015, when the country raised the terror alert to Level 4, to 163.