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Spanish court convicts two jihadist inmates for trying to recruit new followers

Spain's top criminal court has handed seven-and-a-half year prison terms to two prisoners jailed for terror offences for writing to other inmates encouraging them to stick to jihadist ideology, court documents showed Tuesday.

Spanish court convicts two jihadist inmates for trying to recruit new followers
An inmate's hand is seen through the bars of a window at the Teixeiro prison, near A Coruna. Photo: MIGUEL RIOPA/AFP.

In a ruling dated February 12, the Audiencia Nacional criminal court jailed Karim Abdeselam Mohamed, 50, and Mohamed El Gharbi, 36, for “recruitment and
terrorist indoctrination” and ordered that each pay an €1,800 fine.

In practice the pair were convicted “for sending letters to other inmates to encourage them to hold on to the jihadist ideology of Islamic State (IS) and urge them to continue terrorist activities once released”.

Both were already serving time for belonging to a terror group, with Mohamed jailed for 12 years in 2015 and Gharbi jailed for eight years in 2018.  A third defendant, Abdelah Abdeselam Ahmed, was acquitted because although he too wrote “belligerent and radical” letters, they didn’t include IS-related “slogans, emblems or drawings”.

Gharbi and Mohamed met inside various prison facilities and began writing to each other, ultimately deciding “to bring together and lead those imprisoned for jihadist crimes so that they wouldn’t abandon this ideology,” the ruling said.

The aim was to encourage them to “remain strong and united in prison” by offering support via handwritten letters that included flags, IS symbols and religious texts. They also painted themed graffiti in places visible to other inmates so they would know radical IS-loyal prisoners were being held there in order to build a “prison front” which was effectively a “collective of radical Muslim prisoners,” it said.

Not only did they approach inmates jailed for jihad offences, but they also sought to “educate, radicalise and attract new followers to their violent ideology” through IS-related slogans.

Ultimately they used their time behind bars to “carry out proselytising activities, to recruit and indoctrinate other inmates,” it said.

Mohamed was jailed in 2015 alongside 10 other jihadists for belonging to an IS-linked group that recruited potential suicide bombers to go to Syria and that dispatched “numerous jihadists”, several of whom had died in such attacks.

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CRIME

Europol bust cocaine gang with arrests in Marbella and Canary Islands

Europol said Thursday that a crime ring smuggling drugs into Europe had collapsed as the result of an investigation involving 40 arrests and the seizure of eight tonnes of cocaine.

Europol bust cocaine gang with arrests in Marbella and Canary Islands

The Hague-based European police force said the entire cartel, whose leaders were based in Turkey and Dubai, had been dealt a major blow after a final set of arrests Wednesday.

The vast three-year-long operation involved police forces from a dozen countries and ranged from Brazil to Spain via Turkey.

According to Europol, the final phase of the operation began with the discovery in August 2023 by the Spanish Guardia Civil of 700 kilos (1,540 pounds)of cocaine in a boat off the Canary Islands, crewed by Croat and Italian citizens.

After exchanging their findings with other police forces, the investigators found links with previous seizures which led to the identification of the masterminds.

In all, 40 people were arrested in six countries, including two top Croat members of the network, who were arrested at the end of 2023 in Istanbul, police said.

The last four arrests took place on Wednesday in Spain, according to Europol.

In one operation witnessed by an AFP journalist, heavily armed members of Spain’s Guardia Civil arrested a 40-year-old man at dawn at his home near Marbella, a seaside resort popular with drug traffickers.

The smugglers shipped cocaine from South America to logistical hubs in west Africa and the Canary Islands.

The drugs were then sent on to centres in Belgium, Croatia, Germany, Italy and Spain for distribution across Europe.

Many of the drug network’s assets, with a total value of several tens of millions of euros, had been seized or frozen, Europol added.

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