The National Police has once again arrested Chafik Jalal BAE in Malaga, a Tunisian who was in search and capture after being convicted of his connection with an Islamist cell that captured jihadists on Spanish soil to fight in conflict zones. A terrorist organization in which he was responsible for providing the necessary false documentation for international travel.

Sources close to the case consulted by EL MUNDO explained that this individual, who ran a food business in the Las Delicias neighborhood of the Malaga capital, has been investigated in the framework of several police interventions for his expertise falsifying passports and other documents .

His first arrest was in the framework of the Union operation , one of the first interventions against Islamic terrorism carried out in Spain and which resulted in 18 detainees in the capital of Malaga, Granada, Lleida, Seville and Palma de Mallorca. It took place on December 19, 2005 and allowed the arrest, among others, of Iraqi Hiyag Mohalab Maan, known as Abu Sufian , to whom those responsible for the case granted a direct thread with the then chief operating officer of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab Al Zarqwi Andrei Misha , a young Belarusian considered an expert in chemical weapons who died in 2009 when he was stabbed during a brawl in La Linea de la Concepcion (Cádiz), was also arrested.

The researchers concluded that Tunisian , as they knew him in his neighborhood, was in charge of providing the documents so that individuals captured by the network could leave the country and become mujahideen. Among them was a young student of Telecommunications from the University of Malaga (UMA) who was intercepted by agents when he was about to leave for Iraq.

Chafik Jalal BAE dodged that first phase of the operation when he was out of the country, but was finally arrested two months later, at the end of February 2006, when he was leaving his home. In the registry that was practiced at home and in his business was a small printing press and tampons with which he made the falsifications. Illegal documents for which I received between 2,000 and 4,000 euros.

It was not his only arrest. The respondent, who is currently 57 years old, was captured again in March 2014 as part of another investigation against jihadism. The family defended their innocence, but the agents considered their relationship proven with elements such as Maya Amaya , an individual of gypsy roots who converted to Islam and who was considered the promoter and leader of the cell. The network, which operated between Melilla and Malaga, sent about thirty people to conflict zones since 2012.

The courts prosecuted these events in 2017 and ended up condemning Tunisian to five and a half years in prison for terrorist offenses. During the process he always denied knowing the activities of the cell and his defense tried to cancel the cause by questioning the legality of the records and listening. However, the ruling was confirmed by the National Court in May 2019.

"Together with his lawyer he has been fighting to avoid entering prison," explained a source of the fight against terrorism, but seeing that he did not succeed, he decided to flee. "Since then I was in search and capture, " he added.

The Tunisian, as reported by the National Police, has collaborated with some of the most active and important Islamist networks in Spain and Europe, having captured and sent to Iraq, Syria, Mali and Libya to numerous radicalized individuals.

"The terrorist organizations receiving those captured by this network were the Islamic State of Iraq and Levante (ISIL), Jabhat al-Nursa (JN), Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and MUYAO," said the official source.

His arrest has been possible thanks to an operation in which the General Information Commission of the National Police and the Provincial Information Brigade of the Provincial Commission of Malaga participated.

The detainee was placed at the disposal of the Torremolinos Guard Court, which ordered his immediate entry into prison.

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  • Iraq
  • National Police
  • Malaga
  • Spain
  • Al Qaeda
  • National audience
  • Islam
  • Jihadism
  • Terrorism

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