6 May 2004
MADRID – One of the main suspects in the Madrid terrorist bombings held a meeting with a miner to organise the theft of the explosions used in the attacks, sources close to the investigation said Thursday.
In an interview with Spanish radio station Cadena Ser, sources said former miner Emilio Suarez Trashorras met Jamal Ahmidan in Madrid to arrange the theft.
Both men have been accused of playing leading roles in the terrorist attacks.
Trashorras, a former miner, worked in pits in Asturias in northern Spain, from where the explosives used in the attacks were said to have been stolen.
He has claimed he did not know what the explosives would be used for.
Investigators told the radio station the meeting took place the day before the Goma 3 explosives were stolen from the mine.
Meanwhile, El Mundo newspaper claimed another leading suspect, Rafa Zhueir, was a police informer and told his police ‘minder’ he had been offered dynamite by Trashorras as early as May 2003.
The police agent, known only as ‘Victor’, claimed Zhueir told him to find buyers for the explosives and said that the police would arrest them.
The newspaper also claims the suspect was being ‘managed’ by a police unit called the Central Operations Unit, which is involved in high-level crime.
Zhueir has claimed he played no part in the terror plot.
But a boss of the same unit, Felix Hernando, has been accused of involvement in a money-laundering scandal and is currently under investigation.
Zhueir, Trashorras and Ahmidan are all in custody along with nine other suspects.
The inquiry into the 11 March attacks is due to start next week, it was reported Thursdsay.
The ten bombs claimed 192 lives and left more than 1,500 people injured.
[Copyright EFE with Expatica]
Subject: Spanish news