Laurence Dollimore
THE assassination attempt of far-right politician Alejo Vidal-Quadras had been carefully planned for months, it has emerged.
The founder of Vox, 78, was shot in the face outside his home in the luxury neighbourhood of Salamanca in Madrid on November 9.
Police have launched a terrorism probe after the former president of the Partido Popular branch in Catalunya insisted the hit was ordered by Iran.
The Iranian government declared Vidal-Quadras, a well-known defender of the country’s opponents, as a ‘terrorist’ in October 2022.
Policia Nacional sources have confirmed that a man arrested in Granada at the weekend is a muslim convert who follows a Shiite belief system led by the ayatollahs of Iran.
His wife, a British expat, was also arrested at one of two properties they share in the quiet town of Lanjaron.
She is said to be from a ‘good family’ and shares one of the properties with her mother.
Police have yet to find evidence that she was involved in the alleged act of terror.
What is known is that the group behind the hit paid an Albanian expat, 22, €500 to buy a BMW motorcycle and place it under his name.
The bricklayer was ordered to update the vehicle’s insurance to avoid any unwanted attention.
He had to travel from Malaga to Madrid to fill out all the necessary paperwork, and was even escorted to the capital by the hired killer who would go on to shoot Vidal-Quadras in broad daylight.
There is no suggestion the Albanian man knew what crime was being planned.
In the weeks running up to the shooting, the home of Vidal-Quadras was being watched and studied.
Police are now racing to find the connection between the arrested muslim convert and the suspected hitman, a French citizen of Tunisian origin.
He is said to have already killed a person in Paris before accepting the contract hit on Vidal-Quadras.
According to police sources quoted by Informacion.es, the muslim convert and the hitman travelled to Madrid the night before the attack, and stayed in a hotel.
On the day in question, they both travelled to the Salamanca neighbourhood, but only the hitman approached the target’s home on a motorbike, it is alleged.
The convert was nearby in a car, according to sources.
The killer waited for Vidal-Quadras to arrive back at his home, before approaching him with his helmet still on and firing at his head.
He fled the scene and burnt the motorbike in a nearby village in Fuenlabrada, before the muslim convert picked him up in his car.
The hitman is still being hunted and is still wanted in France for the alleged murder he carried out in Paris. He is said to have a rap sheet of another 40 alleged crimes.
Policia Nacional are now trying to discover who hired the hit.
