Madrid – Spanish police on Tuesday arrested four people suspected of using social media to brainwash and recruit people to violent groups like the Islamic State, the interior ministry said.
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Like other European countries, Spain has stepped up efforts to prevent citizens being radicalized and recruited to Islamist groups in Syria or Iraq since the attacks on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris last month.
Two of those were arrested in the Spanish North African enclave Melilla and ran web pages promoting the cause of various groups, especially Islamic State, translating material into Spanish, ministry said in a statement.
“Both those arrested, who shared the strategy of the terrorist group DAESH (the Islamic State), recruited women who, after a process of indoctrination, ended up joining the terrorist group,” it said.
As well as running webpages, the two alleged Melilla recruiters organized meetings where they showed videos and material from Islamic State designed to persuade young Muslims from Western democracies to become jihadists.
Some of those who attended the meetings had already begun to prepare to go to militant areas, the ministry said.
The other two suspects were arrested in Barcelona and Girona in northeast Spain for posting pro-jihadist material on Facebook.
The police are investigating links between the Melilla and Catalan groups.