Maoist terrorists, ETA ‘commandos’ captured

11 February 2004

BILBAO – Spanish police arrested Wednesday three suspected members of the violent anti-capitalist organisation GRAPO in two raids in the Basque region, authorities reported.

Officers detained before dawn in the province of Vizcaya a man and a woman believed to be members of GRAPO, a Spanish-language acronym for “October 1st Anti-Fascist Resistance Groups.”

Authorities also arrested early Wednesday a third person, identified by the initials F.C.B., for alleged ties to the group, official sources told EFE.

The arrest was made at the home of the third person in the Basque city of Vitoria, where police seized “many documents.”

The Maoist group is blamed for the killing of more than 80 people in Spain and for numerous extortions, robberies and kidnappings.

Meanwhile, French police arrested Wednesday two more suspected members of ETA.

The two men were arrested in Limoges, in central France.

The men were living in an apartment which police believe had been occupied by the two other ETA members arrested near Cognac in south-west France.

Anti-terrorist police named the two ETA suspects caught on Monday as Ibon Elorrieta Sanz and Luis Enrique Gárate Galarza, who they said were part of the terrori group’s logistical support.

The arrests on Monday came with the seizure of 32kg of explosives and a cache of weapons, including a rocket-launcher and an Uzi submachine gun.

After a chase with police, the two were detained as they drove a stolen Renault Kangoo pick-up truck.

It is believed they were simply transferring the weapons.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news