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Spanish security services have reportedly identified several people previously investigated for jihadism-related offences among the migrants who entered Ceuta during last week’s mass arrivals, according to Spanish news outlets El Español and The Objective, which cited sources familiar with the investigation.
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Euronews has contacted Spain’s Interior Ministry, National Police and Civil Guard for comment but has not yet received a response.
According to the reports, officers from the National Police’s General Information Commissariat (CGI) and the Civil Guard’s Intelligence Headquarters (JIGC) analysed surveillance footage and identified at least a dozen people who had previously been arrested, convicted and later deported to Morocco for offences linked to jihadist terrorism.
Last week, terrorism experts interviewed by Euronews said the jihadist threat in Spain has evolved into a “fourth phase”, characterised by increasingly decentralised radicalisation through social media, messaging apps and propaganda shared in memes and short videos, rather than through traditional hierarchical organisations.
The experts also highlighted the close counter-terrorism cooperation between Spain and Morocco, particularly in intelligence sharing and the monitoring of radicalised individuals, which they said is crucial when screening large-scale migration flows.
The reports have not been officially confirmed.
A similar controversy arose in May 2021, when thousands of migrants entered Ceuta via the El Tarajal breakwater. At the time, the Spanish government dismissed media reports alleging that jihadist militants had infiltrated the arrivals, describing them as a “malicious hoax”.
So far, neither the Spanish government nor the country’s law enforcement agencies have commented publicly on the latest reports published by El Español and The Objective.