Search goes on at ETA arms dumps

13 October 2004

MADRID – French police renewed searches Wednesday of three ETA arms dumps in south-west France, security sources said.

The searches were carried out in the presence of French anti-terrorist judge Laurence Le Vert,

The searches follow a major police operation on 3 October in which the political leader of the Basque terrorist group Mikel Albisu, alias ‘Mikel Antza’ and his girlfriend, Soledad Iparragirre, ‘Anboto’ were arrested along with 15 others.

Antza was said to be the de-facto leader of ETA and Anboto was reported to be in charge of extorting cash to pay for its terrorist operations.

Antza was said to have paid up to EUR 100,000 each year into the ETA coffers to pay for military operations. The cash came from extortion operations.

The arms dumps were in Urrugne, Briscous and Saint-Pierre d’Irube, near the Spanish border.

Last week, police discovered two Russian-made ‘SAM-7’ ground-to-air missiles capable of shooting down a aircraft.

Security sources said seven ETA suspects accompanied police to the search Wednesday of the arms dumps.

The reason the searches were being carried out again was that the suspects could only be held in custody for four days before appearing in court.

The suspects had been taken to Paris last week to appear in court and were returning to the scene of the arms dumps in the south-west of the country.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news