Spanish police detain suspected ETA member

Spanish police detained Thursday an alleged member of the armed Basque separatist group ETA in the northern city of Bilbao, the interior ministry said.

Juan Francisco Gomez Lopez, who goes by the alias “Patxi”, was wanted by the National Court, Spain’s top criminal court, for being a collaborator with ETAs Vizcaya cell, the ministry said in a statement.

He is the third suspected member of ETA to be arrested in Spain since the group announced in October 2011 that it was giving up its armed struggle.

Classed as a terrorist group by the European Union, ETA is blamed for 829 deaths during a four-decade campaign of shootings and bombings for an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain and southern France.

Weakened by a series of arrests of its members, ETA has not carried out an attack on Spanish soil since August 2009.