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Spain arrests seven over links to Mumbai attacks
Spain arrests seven over links to Mumbai attacks
By Teresa Larraz, writing Nigel Davies, editing by Tim Pearce | Reuters Wed, Dec 1 7:09 PM IST
MADRID (Reuters) - Seven men have been arrested in Barcelona, accused of providing fake identification documents to al Qaeda-linked groups including the one that carried out the Mumbai attacks in 2008, the Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.
Six Pakistanis and one Nigerian were arrested on Tuesday and early Wednesday accused of stealing passports and other travel documents from tourists in Barcelona and sending them to Thailand where they were falsified and passed to extremist organised crime groups, it said in a press release.
Among the groups the documents were sent to was the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was blamed for the attacks in Mumbai in November 2008 in which 166 people were killed, as well as Sri Lanka's separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
The ministry said the arrests were part of an international operation in which two Pakistanis and one Thai were also arrested in Thailand, accused of leading the group set up in Spain and other European countries.
The ministry said the group robbed people whose age and nationality enabled members of the militant groups holding the falsified documents to travel freely across borders.
"This large-scale operation neutralises an important cell providing passports to al Qaeda, weakening the falsification apparatus of this organisation at an international level, and as such its operational capabilities," the ministry said.
Spanish police recovered numerous identification documents in the homes of those arrested, as well as hard discs, memory sticks, 50 mobile phones and SIM cards, and cash in dollars, euros, and British pounds.
(Reporting by Teresa Larraz, writing Nigel Davies, editing by Tim Pearce)
Spain arrests seven over links to Mumbai attacks
By Teresa Larraz, writing Nigel Davies, editing by Tim Pearce | Reuters Wed, Dec 1 7:09 PM IST
MADRID (Reuters) - Seven men have been arrested in Barcelona, accused of providing fake identification documents to al Qaeda-linked groups including the one that carried out the Mumbai attacks in 2008, the Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.
Six Pakistanis and one Nigerian were arrested on Tuesday and early Wednesday accused of stealing passports and other travel documents from tourists in Barcelona and sending them to Thailand where they were falsified and passed to extremist organised crime groups, it said in a press release.
Among the groups the documents were sent to was the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was blamed for the attacks in Mumbai in November 2008 in which 166 people were killed, as well as Sri Lanka's separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
The ministry said the arrests were part of an international operation in which two Pakistanis and one Thai were also arrested in Thailand, accused of leading the group set up in Spain and other European countries.
The ministry said the group robbed people whose age and nationality enabled members of the militant groups holding the falsified documents to travel freely across borders.
"This large-scale operation neutralises an important cell providing passports to al Qaeda, weakening the falsification apparatus of this organisation at an international level, and as such its operational capabilities," the ministry said.
Spanish police recovered numerous identification documents in the homes of those arrested, as well as hard discs, memory sticks, 50 mobile phones and SIM cards, and cash in dollars, euros, and British pounds.
(Reporting by Teresa Larraz, writing Nigel Davies, editing by Tim Pearce)
