Last year, State security forces and bodies arrested 77 suspected terrorists in 35 operations related to jihadism, the highest number since 2005, when the shock wave of the 11-M attacks was still alive in Spain. 67% more arrested than in 2022. But the police attacks were concentrated in the last three months of the year, after the Hamas attack in Israel represented a turning point. Starting on October 7, anti-terrorist agents detected that a high number of subjects who were previously under scrutiny were undergoing “a rapid process of radicalization” through social networks, so the investigations were exploited to neutralize them before they could take action.
Sources from the General Information Commissariat of the National Police – from where they piloted 25 of the operations – explain that the first two detainees last year had sworn an oath of loyalty to the Islamic State and intended to move from Almería to the Sahel to join the terrorist ranks. . However, once the war broke out in Israel, experts detected how some investigated showed their intention to travel to the Gaza Strip to fight. However, the same sources acknowledge that at the end of the year those intentions deflated, as the harshness with which the Israeli army acted became apparent.
But the international aftershocks of the Hamas attack are not the only cause that explains the increase in terrorist activity. The year was marked by the great rise of jihadist propaganda. From the Information Headquarters of the Civil Guard, the intelligence service of the armed institute, they have detected that terrorist organizations such as Al Qaeda or the Islamic State – which have lost their large territories and have suffered very considerable casualties in their structures – have achieved “ maintain terrorist tension in Europe thanks to propaganda.” “The threat is decentralized by those who consume propaganda,” they say from the Civil Guard.
This propaganda boom that the security forces and bodies warn about is not only boosted by official terrorist organizations. And here is the key. More and more individuals with high knowledge in the matter are being detected who are in charge – on an individual basis – of disseminating terrorist content on the Internet. They do not have the profile of the solitary actor who carries out the terrorist action – although this cannot be ruled out either – but they are increasingly younger people who, despite not knowing each other, carry out very dangerous dissemination work.
Precisely, both the National Police and the Civil Guard agree that 2023 was the year “of the boom for minors.” There have been more teenagers arrested than ever, a population group that is a perfect breeding ground for captors. The most recent: on December 19, three minors were arrested in Barcelona and Madrid as alleged perpetrators of the crimes of indoctrination, terrorist self-training and murder conspiracy. Given their desire to commit an action and the distribution of tasks they began – including the manufacture of the explosives – the agents in charge of the investigation proceeded to arrest them.
As researchers reveal, this is one of the biggest concerns in the fight against terrorism. They describe some operations with detained youth as “patches,” because “the underlying problem” is radicalization through the propaganda media. A phenomenon similar to that of Latin gangs - now called youth - is occurring: very impressionable adolescents, with a low scale of values and in family environments that are not radicalized. On the contrary, they are completely unaware that their own son is embracing terrorist postulates.
Agents have no doubt that this phenomenon will continue to grow and will mark the major operations of the year that starts now. They are also committed to “not neglecting” the figure of the returned combatant, one of the great threats to Spain according to the Interior, despite the fact that in 2023 no terrorist with this profile was arrested.
Furthermore, the researchers assure that it is essential to "not lose sight of" the Sahel, as all security experts have been warning, and the focus of radicalization that Spanish penitentiaries continue to be, as in the rest of Europe.
