11 detainees in Melilla and Nador in an operation by the Spanish and Moroccan police against the Islamic State

A joint operation of the National Police and the Moroccan General Directorate of Territory Surveillance (DGST) has allowed the dismantling of a cell linked to the Islamic State (ISIS) established in Melilla and neighboring Nador on Tuesday with the arrest of 11 of its presumed members, as reported by EFE and confirmed by EL PAÍS in police sources.

The bulk of the arrests have occurred in the Spanish city, with nine arrests.

According to a statement from the Central Office of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ, the Moroccan anti-terrorist body), "the suspects intensely disseminated extremist speech that incited them to join the terrorist organization."

A great deal of computer and telephony material has been intervened in the records and is going to be analysed.

The authorities have reported that the alleged ringleader of the plot was linked to a cell dismantled in December 2019 in another joint operation in which four were arrested: three in Nador and one in Guadalajara.

That cell focused on "capturing, indoctrinating and recruiting new followers", who were also encouraged to commit attacks in revenge for the death, in October of that year, of the self-proclaimed caliph of the Islamic State, Abubaker al-Baghdadi, in an operation US military. In that operation, the four detainees held meetings at night in homes in Melilla and Moroccan cities near the border with Spain with other radicalized individuals.

She was linked to jihadist terrorists displaced from Spain and Morocco to conflict zones such as Syria and Mali.

Spanish and Moroccan sources have stressed on Tuesday the relevance of the operation, which they have put as an example of the good relations between the two countries in police material.

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