By Xinhua
Madrid : Spanish police have arrested one person for alleged links with a network sending mercenaries to Iraq and Afghanistan, interior ministry officials said here.
Monday's arrest brought the total number of such suspects detained in the past seven months to 16, including 14 Moroccans and two Algerians, the ministry said, adding that 13 were arrested in Catalonia, two in Aranjuez, Madrid, and one in Malaga.
The arrests were made during the Operation Tala conducted by the Barcelona Police Information Brigade in collaboration with its Madrid counterpart.
The operation has dismantled a network that was preaching radical Islam and war norms and financing and sending combatants to terrorist organizations in north Africa and Iraq.
The operation followed up on the 2006 arrest of 22 people for similar charges in Madrid, Catalonia and the Basque region.
Police have also seized manuscripts, diaries, computers and mobile phones during the operation.