Two arrested in anti-terrorism raid in Figueres

Spanish police arrested two people in an anti-terrorism raid on Tuesday in the Catalan town of Figueres, near Girona. The detainees are two brothers who allegedly managed a complex network of social media accounts to share propaganda praising the terrorist organization ISIS.

According to the Spanish Home Affairs Ministry, the detainees hacked social media accounts and used them to publish pictures of training camps with children, public executions and images humiliating victims of terror attacks. 

Beginning in March 2016, the two suspects are thought to have published more than 400 posts with ISIS-related content in their private profiles. The material they published directly encouraged their followers to carry out terror attacks, and included a handbook on how to make bombs from home, how to stab civilians and how to train to become a ‘mujahidin’.

Two other people were arrested in the same police operation: one in Parla, near Madrid, and another one in Tanger, Morocco. The latter is thought to be a “dangerous” member of ISIS and one of the leaders of the propaganda wing of the organization.

After the terror attacks

Two other people were arrested in anti-terrorism raids last week, also for sharing content that promotes terrorism. The detentions came three months after jihadist terrorism took its toll in Catalonia in mid-August, when coordinated attacks in Barcelona and the seaside town of Cambrils left 17 people dead and more than a hundred wounded. All alleged members of the terrorist cell are either in custody or dead.