MADRID — Authorities in the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia say 17 people, including five alleged members of an extremist Islamist cell, are arrested Tuesday as part of an ongoing anti-terror operation.
As well as having terror links, the suspects also allegedly committed theft, drug trafficking and other crimes, according to the Mossos d’Esquadra regional police.
More than 100 agents were taking part in the operation, which was still taking place mid-afternoon, a spokeswoman says. The spokeswoman says six venues had been searched in and near Barcelona.
Catalan regional minister of security, Miquel Buch, tells reporters that most of the arrests were in a central neighborhood of the Catalan capital, but some were in the nearby town of Igualada.
The five suspected of being part of an extremist cell were originally from Algeria, Buch tells reporters. “They were determined about carrying out an attack, but they didn’t have the capacity for it,” he says.
— AP
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