The National Police has arrested a fugitive from Belgian justice in Benahavís, a tourist municipality on the Costa del Sol in Malaga, for his alleged connection with the jihadist attack that shook Belgium on October 16, in which a radical Islamist began shot with a firearm at passers-by in the heart of Brussels and killed two Swedish citizens who had tried to take refuge in a nearby building. The terrorist followed them, entered the building and ended their lives there.
The man now detained in Malaga, who has an International Detention and Surrender Order issued by the Belgian authorities for crimes of drug trafficking, arms trafficking, money laundering and membership in a criminal organization, has been at the disposal of the Court this Friday. Central Guard Instruction Center and its owner have decreed his immediate entry into prison.
During the arrest and search of the home by the National Police, documentation, electronic devices and a significant amount of money were seized, which investigators are now analyzing with the aim of determining the type of relationship that this subject had with the terrorist. who carried out the Brussels attack, a 45-year-old Tunisian who was residing illegally in Belgium and who was shot dead by Belgian police in the Schaerbeek neighborhood shortly after carrying out the attack.
The efforts carried out so far within the framework of the investigation lead to the assumption that the link between the detainee in Malaga and the terrorist, whom the Belgian authorities were tracking due to his connection with human trafficking and whom they considered a “radical ” that could endanger the security of the country, was forged around criminal activities and the world of organized crime.
Protected under a false identity and documentation, this wanted criminal had hidden in broad daylight in an apartment in a luxurious urbanization in this Malaga municipality of just under 10,000 inhabitants, which borders Marbella and where some of the most exclusive urbanizations in Europe such as La Zagaleta.
It has not been easy to find him but the conscientious investigative work carried out by the police officers in charge of the case has made it possible to determine the exact location of the fugitive who until now has managed to evade the action of Justice.
The investigation, coordinated by the Prosecutor’s Office of the National Court and directed by the Central Court of Instruction number Two, began as a result of the information provided by the Belgian authorities in which they influenced the possible relationship of the author of the Brussels attack with an individual established in Spanish territory.
The police operation, in which international collaboration has been key and which has been carried out with total discretion, has been carried out by agents from the General Information Commission and the provincial Information brigades of Madrid and Malaga, and has included the support of the National Intelligence Center (CNI).
In Benahavís, no one had noticed anything, explains to this newspaper the Councilor for Tourism and Immigration of the municipality, Scott Marshall, who confirms that they have learned of an arrest that has left them “frozen” through the news and who has not hesitated to show his concern about what happened. “Asking for a criminal record certificate from anyone who is going to settle here would be a very important measure to take into account,” commented the mayor.
This is not the first time that the intense work of the State security forces has made it possible to locate and arrest fugitives from justice from other countries in the European Union itself, the United Kingdom or even Latin America who seek refuge in the province of Malaga. . This same Friday, the Civil Guard has arrested in Mijas a “dangerous” French criminal wanted by the authorities of France, a country in which he is accused of participating in settling scores. In August, agents of the Armed Institute arrested a Russian citizen accused of theft and corruption of officials in Russia and in September the National Police arrested an international fugitive wanted in Argentina for sexually abusing his daughter for five years.
The characteristics of the Costa del Sol, with dispersed residential areas, urbanizations with homes where the majority of their owners do not reside in them as they are vacation properties and the frequent coming and going of foreign citizens, make it an ideal place in which to Criminals try to go unnoticed.