Spanish, Moroccan police arrest 6 terror cell suspects

By Alyssa McMurtry

MADRID (AA) - Six suspected terrorists were arrested in Morocco and a Spanish North African city in a joint operation to dismantle a terrorist cell, Spanish and Moroccan police said in a statement on Wednesday.

Five of the suspects were arrested in Morocco and one was arrested in Melilla, an autonomous Spanish city on the North African coast bordering Morocco.

According to police, the leader of the cell was a 39-year-old Spaniard who followed Daesh’s global terrorism strategy, using his position as a teaching assistant at a juvenile rehabilitation center in Melilla to recruit vulnerable minors.

The investigation found that the cell “had planned massive terrorist attacks” and routinely held nightly meetings “where they would carry out physical training and simulate decapitations.”

Authorities say these meetings where what tipped police off to the group and its “dangerous level of activation.”

The arrests come just weeks after terrorist attacks in Catalonia killed 16. Spain has officially been on high alert for terrorist attacks since June 2015, and since then Spanish police have arrested 199 suspected terrorists.

Authorities say the joint operation “shows the relevance of the excellent collaboration” between the national police forces, which made possible the “neutralization of a dangerous threat that affected both countries.”