MADRID — Police have arrested three suspected members of al-Qaeda who amassed explosives and may have been plotting attacks in Spain or elsewhere in Europe, Spain’s interior minister said Thursday. Authorities found evidence suggesting they were experimenting with ultralight planes and remote-controlled planes.
The three — a Russian, a Russian of Chechen descent, and a Turk, according to Spanish police — were detained Wednesday. The Turk was arrested in the southern city of La Linea, which borders the British colony of Gibraltar, while the other two were picked up near the central city of Ciudad Real as they traveled toward a northern Spanish town near the border with France.
Enough explosive material was found in the house in La Linea where the Turk lived to blow up a bus, and the material could have been especially dangerous if combined with shrapnel, Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz said.
Investigators found no indications that the three were targeting Gibraltar, he said, declining to offer specifics on possible targets, except that “there are clear indications they could have been planning an attack in Spain and/or another country.”
“This is one of the most important operations carried out against al-Qaeda,” Fernandez Diaz told reporters. He said the operation involved close collaboration with intelligence services from “Spain’s allies,” without identifying any of the countries.
Fernandez Diaz did not disclose the suspects’ names
.
The minister described one operative as a key member of the terrorist network and said investigators also found “documentation of the use of ultralights as well as remote-controlled planes,” without providing more details.
