The Spanish police arrested a man on Monday morning in the Madrilenian town of Majadahonda, for allegedly being part of the terrorist group «Islamic State», said the Spanish Interior Ministry, quoted by Antena 3.
The alleged terrorist is a 19-year-old Moroccan national who was granted the Spanish citizenship. He had gradually become radicalized since he was 16 years old.
According to the ministry, the young man «had a very advanced stage of indoctrination that he showed on social media voicing his intention to die as a martyr».
El detenido por la @policia en Majadahonda era muy activo en Internet y manejaba varios perfiles en las redes sociales para recibir y transmitir propaganda de adoctrinamiento y adiestramiento del #Daesh. pic.twitter.com/KSdJLeKcFL
— Juan Ignacio Zoido (@zoidoJI) 18 décembre 2017
In the recent months, «his behavior was getting worse», which led the police to arrest him. He seemed particularly active on the internet and «used different profiles on social media to transmit and receive Daesh propaganda», the ministry said.
Through social media, he managed to obtain «a large amount of videos and documents to get trained and strengthen his commitment to execute jihadist missions». In addition, «he had proclaimed himself as an important member of Daesh, through the management of several dissemination channels [jihadist propaganda] and the dissemination of several publications, mentioning explicit symbols of the organization [terrorist]».
In addition to having a «fanatical profile», the young man «made parallels and puns with the names of more well-known terrorists, including the 'Jihad John' (British terrorist of Kuwaiti origins known as the state's hangman). At the age of 15, he became famous for his performance videos, or Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi and Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, respectively «caliph» and spokesman for the terrorist organization Daesh.