One of the jihadists convicted in the Caront case arrested for terrorism in Montblanc

BarcelonaThe Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) and the National Police arrested a man this Tuesday as part of an anti-terrorist operation in Montblanc (Conca de Barberà). in the framework of the Caronte case, the first active jihadist group dismantled by the Mossos d'Esquadra. The National Court sentenced him to eight years in prison in 2018Now that he's free, the Mossos d'Esquadra (General Intelligence Commissariat) and specialists from the National Police have again found evidence of radicalization and arrested him as part of an investigation overseen by the National Court and which is under secrecy.

Specifically, YO is a person of Spanish origin who converted to Islam. The Mossos d'Esquadra arrested him in Valls in 2015 for being part of a Daeix cell centered in Terrassa, and the National Court sentenced the ten members of the cell to between eight and twelve years in prison. According to the sentence, the group had photographed potential targets for attacks and planned to kidnap a person and slit their throat while videotaping it. The idea was to dress them "in an orange suit, place them in a dark room and execute them as Daeix had already done, and record the images to upload to YouTube." The group's three leaders were sentenced to twelve years, and seven other members received eight years. All were charged with membership in a terrorist organization.

Attack on institutions

The verdict states that the defendants formed a terrorist group "with the sole purpose of fulfilling the tenets of Daeix" and that they were prepared "to carry out an attack at any time against institutions such as the police, banks, or Jewish interests, or to join the ranks of Daeix." During the trial, the defendants denied the crimes, but the court relied on the material seized during the searches to convict them. In addition to the photographs of the targets and the notebook with notes on explosives manufacturing, officers seized dozens of files with videos of jihad, Daeix fighters, executions, and jihadist propaganda.

"We never talked about carrying out attacks or anything like that; there was nothing but beach time, a bit of sport, laughter. Then I left and they put me in jail," JO declared at the time. He also asserted that exclaiming "Allah is great" is like saying "Long live the independentists."

The investigation led to tensions between the Mossos d'Esquadra and the National Police, because the Catalan police detected interference from the state force and reported that, through informants, two officers had revealed to the cell that it was under surveillance.