19 October 2012
One detainee was stopped at the airport of El Prat de Llobregat (Barcelona) with about 100 passports while preparing to take a flight to Greece.
On 13 October, the Guarda Civil via Operation “KOMETA” dismantled a criminal group that had provided false documents to an al Qaeda cell based in Germany, where it is believed they were preparing a terrorist attack.
In the operation six people were arrested, five of which were sent to prison, and house searches were conducted in Barcelona. Computer equipment, various documents and passports of various nationalities numerous allegedly stolen in Spain were confiscated by the police.
The detainees are Moroccan, Algerian and Belgian. Some of the detainees, at the time of their arrest, possessed several identity documents (passports and identity cards) with their photos but with different data and different nationalities. In fact, the terrorist network had been active in Austria and Belgium being then transferred to Spain, where the main activity was to provide false documentation.
