In the first six months of this year, almost half of Spain’s police operations against islamist terrorism have taken place in Catalonia, as demonstrated by figures from the interior ministry and the International Observatory for the Study of Terrorism. The Objective calculates that this means 12 out of 28 of such known operations.
According to the International Observatory for the Study of Terrorism, the most recent raid took place early on Sunday morning, in the Catalan capital Barcelona and the nearby city of Badalona. WIth the investigation ongoing, details have not been released, but The Objective reports that sources close to the authorities point to the involvement of countries outside the European Union, all linked to the three people arrested in Catalonia.
As of mid-July, Spain’s police forces had arrested 50 people in Spain for jihad-related crimes: 19 in Catalonia, eight in Andalusia, two in Valencia, and two in Murcia. Madrid—which also had a relatively high number of arrests in anti-terrorism operations in the last decade—has not registered any jihadist operations so far this year. In 2023 in Madrid, 11 people were arrested on terrorist-related charges, putting the capital and its surrounding region just behind Catalonia in the number of jihadist operations prevented by police.
The figures from the first half of 2024 contrast sharply with those of 2023. Catalonia is possibly set to double the number of arrests of potential would-be terrorists, while Madrid has yet to register a single one. At the same time, the country’s overall total of terrorism-related arrests is on the rise. In 2023 there were 78 such arrests—the highest number since 2004—the year of the AlQaeda-linked bombings of commuter trains in Madrid that killed almost 200 people.
Catalonia, and Barcelona in particular, has become Spain’s security risk hotspot. Stemming recent rising crime levels was a major point in the regional election held last May.
Police sources told The Objective that the region continues to be one of the principal places in Spain where radicalization and subsequent recruitment into terror cells takes place. The details of two cases that demonstrate the dynamics of jihadist terrorism on European soil are as follows:
- One police operation in mid-June Spanish police was the culmination of an investigation that started five years ago, with the arrest of German Bagaev and Serhii Aniskovich. In 2019, both men had previously served prison sentences for terrorism charges and were caught again trying to cross the border into France. In their vehicle was a Serbian-made M-75 anti-personnel grenade. After several years of investigations, it was confirmed that Bagaev and at least four other people were buying weapons and materials for a terrorist attack they were planning.
- In March, a Spanish national studying mechanics was arrested for disseminating terrorist manuals from the Islamic State (ISIS), after they were found in the possession of four members of an Islamist cell. According to police, the five were arrested while preparing to attack Tyresö in Sweden.
