In 2023, Spanish authorities arrested 78 people on charges related to jihadist terrorism, an increase of 66% from the previous year.
The figures, compiled by the Home Office, are the highest on record in nearly 20 years. The increase in jihadist terror-related arrests marks a continuation of an upward trend that began in 2015, when Europe saw an unprecedented influx of 1.3 million immigrants, the majority of them from Islamic cultures. It comes from the sphere.
The number of operations targeting jihadist terrorists increased as well, with the National Police and Civil Guard conducting a total of 36 operations in Spain’s 50 provinces, nine more than the previous year.
Barcelona had the highest number of arrests and surgeries, with 14 and 7 respectively. Madrid came in second with 11 and 6 players, followed by Valencia with 6 and 4 players.
Notably, the majority of arrests and police activity took place in the final months of the year. Before August, for example, authorities had made 19 arrests in 16 operations. In the months leading up to the end of the year, arrests soared to 78 people and police activity more than doubled.
In November, two minors, one living in Placencia and the other in the Balearic Islands, used a video game communication platform to spread Islamic State propaganda and carry out terrorist attacks. He was arrested by private security personnel on suspicion of recruiting jihadist volunteers.
A month later, on December 19, Spanish National Police, in cooperation with Moroccan authorities, carried out the largest anti-jihadist terrorist operation in recent years, capturing nine alleged members of a terrorist recruitment cell in the North African enclave of Melilla. I was arrested. The other is in the city of Nador, Morocco.
In the same week, Spanish authorities arrested three extremist teenagers in Barcelona and Madrid on jihadist terrorism-related charges. The trio reportedly used triacetone triperoxide (TATP), a powerful explosive used by Islamic terrorists in the November 2015 Paris attacks, the 2016 Brussels airport attacks, and the Manchester concert bombings. ) was trying to obtain instructions on how to synthesize it.
The explosive is popular among jihadists because its ingredients, hydrogen peroxide and acetone, are readily available.
According to prosecutors, the trio was “highly radicalized and had an ideology completely consistent with the jihadist views espoused by the terrorist organization.” [Islamic State]”
The aftermath of events in Gaza is being felt across Europe as well. Just one month after the Hamas attack on Israel, the French Interior Ministry reported 1,518 anti-Semitic incidents, almost triple the total recorded in all of 2022.
Meanwhile, in Denmark, the Mapping and Knowledge Sharing Agency for Anti-Semitic Incidents (AKVA), part of the Danish Jewish Association, reported a sharp increase in anti-Semitic incidents in the month following the October 7 attack. . The group noted that the number of infections was 24 times higher than the average for the previous nine months.
About a week after the attack, Tunisian immigrants allegedly inspired by Islamic State ideology killed two Swedish soccer fans in Brussels. Days earlier, Chechen Islamists on France’s terror watchlist attacked a local school, killing a teacher and injuring several others.
It remains unclear whether these incidents are directly related to or inspired by the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, but both include former Hamas leader Khalid Meshaal, who It happened after he called for people to come together on a “day of jihad”.