LONDON: Four people in Spain have been arrested over alleged terror offenses, including two Spanish nationals who had recently converted to Islam, MailOnline reported.
One of those arrested had reportedly used the dark web to download a bomb-making manual which provided instructions on producing a “Mother of Satan” explosive.
The man had “taken the first steps” to try to make the peroxide-based formula, which was previously discovered in the ruined bomb factory used to stage the August 2017 terrorist attacks in Barcelona.
Police carried out property raids as part of the crackdown. One home was found to contain a “large samurai-style sword.”
The four individuals were arrested in Madrid, Cubelles near Barcelona, and the town of Huetor-Tajar near Granada.
The 2017 attacks resulted in 24 deaths, but authorities warned that the perpetrators had failed to use 100 kg of TATP they had kept in storage. TATP has been dubbed the “Mother of Satan.”
The explosive was used by terrorists to carry out the London bombings in 2005.
Police said that the four individuals — three men and a woman — had been arrested on suspicion of crimes including the glorification of terrorism.
Three of the detainees are in their 20s, while the fourth is aged 31, local media said, adding that two had recently converted to Islam.
A spokesman for the Spanish police said: “They were held on suspicion of the crimes of self-indoctrination for terrorist purposes, indoctrination of third parties with the same objective, and glorification of terrorism.
“Investigators saw how these people, linked thorough closed social media groups, had suffered a process of radicalization,” he added.
