LLEIDA, Catalonia, National Police arrested a man in Lleida’s historic centre on Tuesday morning in an operation linked to jihadist terrorism. Officers went to a home on Carrer Alsamora to carry out the arrest, according to police sources.
Police have not released further details about the investigation. Officials said it is the ninth arrest linked to jihadist terrorism in the Lleida region since 2012.
The arrest comes after two detentions in Vallfogona de Balaguer, in the Noguera area, in mid-August last year. Those suspects were detained on suspicion of self-indoctrination, active terrorist indoctrination and collaboration, after an investigation that began a year earlier.
According to the earlier police account, anti-terrorism specialists identified a person with high online activity linked to Daesh pages. One of those arrested, aged 26, had previously been imprisoned in Morocco for similar offences. After his release, he entered Melilla illegally and later settled in Noguera.
The other suspect, aged 24, was allegedly recruited by the first. Police said the older suspect showed a high level of radicalisation and systematically accessed websites with jihadist material. Officers moved faster because of his alleged intention to travel to conflict zones in the Middle East.
Data updated by the Ministry of Interior on 2 June shows eight previous arrests related to jihadist terrorism in the Lleida region since 2012. Five were in Lleida city, two in Vallfogona de Balaguer and one in Solsona. Over that period, there have been five operations, including two in 2023. For more Catalonia-wide reporting, see our news page.
Elsewhere in the region, a man in Lleida was previously arrested for allegedly trying to raise money for Islamic State, while his partner was detained in Nador, Morocco. Months later, another person was arrested in Solsona for glorifying jihadist terrorism on TikTok. Across Spain, authorities have carried out 454 operations against jihadist terrorism and made 807 arrests since 2012.