The world

Updated Wednesday, January 31, 2024-10:02

The Civil Guard has arrested a

crypto-jihadist

in Barcelona. The detainee was the

owner of several cryptocurrency addresses

that operated in three different networks and were linked to multiple addresses, forming a network with branches in several countries whose purpose was to capture funds and transmit them to the terrorist group DAESH.

And, since the appearance of cryptocurrencies, the Information Service of the Civil Guard has implemented research activities on this new method of transmitting value in order to prevent and detect that it could be used for the financing of terrorist activities.

This

aspect of terrorist financing

through cryptocurrencies has developed since the beginning of the last decade, having increased in intensity since then and, especially, after the COVID-19 pandemic. The health situation experienced in 2020 served as a catalyst for this new threat to security, promoting the emergence of new terrorist trends specialized in the economic field to compensate, among other aspects, for the loss of personal mobility that was restricted in several countries due to health reasons.

In this way, these current sophisticated means of financing promoted by fully specialized crypto-jihadists severely complicate the investigations of the security services. It is at this point where international cooperation becomes one of the most decisive instruments to be able to neutralize these networks, since the activity carried out through them is increasingly important and has become one of the priorities of the security agencies in the fight against terrorism.

The activity carried out by the network with which the detainee was related had not gone unnoticed by the international security services, since it had a great impact in the form of large economic movements. Thus, during this investigation there has been the notable participation of the French DGSI, the American FBI, the Swedish SÄPO and Europol. Likewise, at the national level, the CNI has participated.

The detainee has been brought to judicial custody having been ordered to be placed in provisional prison.