Moroccan Jihadist Arrested In Pamplona With Hundreds Of Explosives And Terrorist Manuals

A 19-year-old Moroccan man has been arrested by National Police officers in the city of Pamplona, accused of his alleged participation in terrorist collaboration crimes.

The suspected jihadist who allegedly aligned himself with the postulates of DAESH, was detained during an operation coordinated by the Prosecutor’s Office of the National Court and directed by the Central Court of Instruction No. 1.

According to a statement from the National Police, the suspect was caught in possession of hundreds of manuals for the production of explosives for terrorist self-training. A judge subsequently ordered his entry to provisional prison this Friday, September 8.

Sources in the investigation informed Europa Press that the teenager shared a flat with another person, and was known to be involved in the indoctrination and recruitment of others to DAESH, as reported by navarra.okdiario.com.

A number of specialist forces participated in the operation

A large number of forces collaborated in the operation to snare this would-be jihadist. They included members of Pamplona’s Provincial Information Brigade, along with members of Almería’s Provincial Information Brigade.

The National Intelligence Centre (CNI), the General Direction of the Surveillance du Territoire (DGST) of Morocco and the EUROPOL agency, also participated.

It was revealed that the young man led a double life. While training and indoctrinating himself through the internet, his public life carried on quite normally.

Oath of loyalty to the Caliph of DAESH

An investigation began in mid-2022 when experts in the fight against terrorism detected an individual aligned with the tenets of DAESH who was disseminating, through his social networks, radical and violent jihadist material that encouraged committing crimes and terrorist actions.

Particularly relevant to their investigation was the taking of the oath of allegiance to the current Caliph of the terrorist organization, Abu Hafs Al-Hashimi Al-Qurashi.

In doing so, he highlighted his membership in the terrorist organisation, aligning himself with its objectives and carrying out activities in its favour.

During the investigation, the police verified that the detainee had: ‘massive and frenetic virtual activity in accordance with his jihadist ideology’.

As a result, he searched, consumed and subsequently disseminated to other users thousands of multimedia files of a radical nature, containing executions, murders or exaltations of terrorist leaders.

The detainee had a large online presence

It was also detected that he operated on different social networks, participating in a large number of jihadist groups. Among them, the most representative was the one described by the detainee as a ‘channel for everything’. This turned out to be a repository where thousands of files produced by official DAESH production companies were made available.

In addition, the detainee maintained various contacts through his social networks with members of DAESH located in the conflict zone, with whom he planned to join up as mujahidin, according to the National Police.

The detainee not only applied strict virtual security measures to avoid being detected by police but also instructed other like-minded people.

He is said to have warned them of the importance of compliance. For this purpose, specific cybersecurity manuals were used.

Based on these elements, in the early hours of last Wednesday, the corresponding police operation was launched. In addition to the arrest of the subject, a house search saw officers seize, among other effects, numerous computer equipment.

Especially significant for the investigation was the location of hundreds of manuals for terrorist self-training. These included information on making explosives, detonators, poisons, and tips for hiding terrorist activity on the internet.

They also instructed users on how to carry out secure financial transactions, the use and handling of all types of weapons, and the recruitment and acquisition of new combatants.

🚩Operación contra el terrorismo yihadista
Detenido en Pamplona un hombre que poseía cientos de manuales idóneos para la autocapacitación terrorista (elaboración de explosivos, venenos, manejo de armas,…)
Utilizaba las redes sociales para captar y adoctrinar a otros usuarios pic.twitter.com/B418FpUZL0

— Policía Nacional (@policia) September 8, 2023