28 Mar, 2021 @ 11:05
1 min read

Arrests in Spain’s Madrid and Tenerife as humanitarian aid for Syrian orphans ‘diverted to finance terrorism’

Couple accused of buying young boy as mother in Spain's Madrid says husband ordered sale to distant relatives
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SPANISH police have arrested three men who allegedly used humanitarian aid for Syrian orphans as a cover to finance terrorism.

Policía Nacional supported by Europol, made the arrests  in Madrid and Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

The suspects are believed to have used a non-governmental organisation (NGO) to finance the activities of Al-Qaeda affiliated militants.

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The network diverted funds raised in good faith by religious associations, under the cover of using them as humanitarian aid for Syrian orphans. In addition to financing the activities of terrorist fighters, part of the funds were used to cover the costs of a school for orphaned children, which is involved in training future terrorist fighters. 

The school focused on radicalising, providing combat training and encouraging orphans to continue the terrorist activities of their parents killed in combat.

As part of the operational action, officers carried out four searches and seized cash.  It is unclear if this was a separate operation to one in which Spain’s leading Muslim figure was arrested and released by the Policia Nacional after he was quizzed over terrorist group funding.

READ MORE:

Woman who planned on joining terrorists in Syria arrested in Spain

Online terrorist recruitment cell with 10,000 followers broken up in Spain

Dilip Kuner

Dilip Kuner is a NCTJ-trained journalist whose first job was on the Folkestone Herald as a trainee in 1988.
He worked up the ladder to be chief reporter and sub editor on the Hastings Observer and later news editor on the Bridlington Free Press.
At the time of the first Gulf War he started working for the Sunday Mirror, covering news stories as diverse as Mick Jagger’s wedding to Jerry Hall (a scoop gleaned at the bar at Heathrow Airport) to massive rent rises at the ‘feudal village’ of Princess Diana’s childhood home of Althorp Park.
In 1994 he decided to move to Spain with his girlfriend (now wife) and brought up three children here.
He initially worked in restaurants with his father, before rejoining the media world in 2013, working in the local press before becoming a copywriter for international firms including Accenture, as well as within a well-known local marketing agency.
He joined the Olive Press as a self-employed journalist during the pandemic lock-down, becoming news editor a few months later.
Since then he has overseen the news desk and production of all six print editions of the Olive Press and had stories published in UK national newspapers and appeared on Sky News.

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