Gema Peñalosa Madrid
Teresa López Pavón Sevilla
Madrid
Seville
Updated Tuesday, January 23, 2024-02:39
Operation A 17-year-old Syrian minor is detained in Seville for jihadist terrorism
Terrorism The new echelon of jihadists detained in Spain: younger, closer to attacks and more radicalized
The Police are "certain" that yesterday they prevented an unprecedented tragedy in Spain at an institute in
Montellano
(Seville).
S.
, a 17-year-old Syrian student whom agents arrested on Sunday for jihadism, intended to attack the center.
The General Information Commissioner's Office had been monitoring him for weeks and the arrest was precipitated by evidence that the teenager intended to take action "imminently", as
investigation sources reveal to
EL MUNDO .
"Today (yesterday) lives have been saved," the same sources conclude.
The investigators were clear that they were not dealing with a teenager eager to attract attention, nor with an amateur or a mere recruiter.
S. had prepared herself thoroughly by "self-radicalizing" on the Internet, as evidenced by the large amount of explosives and chemicals found in the house she shared with her mother and her 10-year-old sister.
Precisely, it was his desire to take action and the messages through social networks that he shared with other users that alerted the Police.
The minor's attitude and his approach to the postulates of jihadist terrorism in recent months were evident.
The minor began to accumulate chemical substances in his house from online purchases.
Once on his trail, the investigators soon realized the degree of danger of the boy and the actions he intended to carry out.
S. had settled in the town two years ago with his family from Syria.
At the institute, the same sources specify, he showed almost from the beginning a complicated character and was involved in some violent incidents that, however, had nothing to do with jihadism.
The arrest occurred early yesterday morning, when S. was leaving his house.
He barely took a few steps when he was arrested.
"Tomorrow is going to be a big day," the youngest told his classmates on Sunday.
By then, the Police were already closely monitoring his every movement.
Many of the students who went to class with him and even teenagers from other courses chose not to go to school yesterday, convinced that the young man was going to carry out the threat he had been making in recent months.
At that time, he had repeatedly told them how to make explosives.
Central Juvenile Court
The agents of the General Information Commissariat are now analyzing possible ramifications and connections of the young man with jihadist terrorism.
S. was transferred to Madrid in the company of his mother because he was a minor.
He will remain at the disposal of the Central Juvenile Court, as specified by the police sources consulted.
It is the first time that a minor has been arrested with the intention of carrying out a terrorist plan related to jihadism of this magnitude in an educational center in Spain.
The agents insist: "A misfortune has been avoided."
The alerts went off in the town of the mountains of Seville on Sunday, when, after seven in the afternoon, a large group of agents from the General Information Commissariat was deployed under the orders of the National Court.
Several cordoned off streets and an unusual deployment of police forces, including a canine unit, altered the afternoon around number 28 Cuesta Bernardo de Montellano Street, where the boy lived with his mother and sister.
The search of the house lasted about eight hours and from there the boy left handcuffed towards the National Court in a police car.
In addition, the agents also left carrying suitcases with the documentation and confiscated explosives.
The family had lived in the house (located on the first floor of the property) for only a few months.
In fact, when the apartment was still empty, during Holy Week in 2023, its balconies were used to take images of the processional departure of the Cristo de los Remedios, whose church is located right in front and which processions every Good Friday.
The family moved months later to this central street in Montellano.
About 200 meters further down, turning left, on Santos Street, is the sewing workshop of Sana, the boy's mother, who had won over her clientele and neighbors with her skill with sewing and her desire to integrate. , to progress with the language and to earn a future for herself and her children.
"Every new word I heard made me write it down on a piece of paper, to learn it well," says a shocked neighbor, imagining the suffering of a mother in the trance of seeing how her teenage son's life has been destroyed.
Isolated and conflicted
On Cruz Street, a group of students were having some soft drinks at the Malaguita cafeteria, entertained by the movement of journalists trying to find out some details about the detainee.
Several offered to talk about the young man, who did not interact much and had been conflictive almost since his arrival in Montellano.
They say that last year he was expelled for 29 days - the maximum sanction that a center can impose on a minor of compulsory school age - after taking out a knife in class and threatening with it a student who reproached him for making marks on a table. .
Later they would try to justify it by saying it had only been a joke.
"There were more days that I didn't go to class than those that I did," the classmates also stated.
In fact, the boy spent some time outside Andalusia with his father.
In his academic history there are several episodes of lack of coexistence.
Other testimonies said that the young man had also participated in the activities and workshops of the
Ribete Project
, a program of the Seville Provincial Council that is developed in the municipalities to provide a healthy leisure alternative to young people.
The Police had S. on their radar due to his progressive radicalization through social networks.
The mayor of Montellano, Curro Gil, explained to the media that Montellano, with 7,000 inhabitants, is a "welcoming" municipality where there is no conflict with its immigrant population, which is not very numerous.
The arrest of S. highlights the trend observed by the Police regarding the profile of potential terrorists in Spain: younger, closer to attacks and more radicalized.
The detained terrorists are no longer just recruiters or people who serve as loudspeakers for
Daesh
.
The year 2023 also brought a new and worrying trend: there were more arrests of teenagers than ever before.
"This population segment is the perfect breeding ground for those who recruit," argued one of the agents in the fight against jihadism in conversation with this newspaper.
The operations of the National Police and the Civil Guard carried out in the last 12 months - with a total of 77 suspected terrorists detained in 35 devices - evidenced a change in trend and way of operating of the cells intercepted in the country.