The National Police arrested another suspect – there are eight of them – for allegedly collaborating in the attack of which he was the victim. Alejo Vidal-Quadras When was shot dead in central Madrid on November 9, 2023, a little over a year ago now.
Agents of the General Information Commission (CGI) of the National Police participated in the arrest, which took place in Pinos Puente (Granada), under the coordination of the Central Court of the Tribunal in charge of the investigation by the Eight people have already been arrested.
The arrested person is accused of providing the firearm used in the attack. In addition to being an alleged collaborator of the person considered to be the material author of the shooting against the former vice-president of the European Parliament, as well as the former president of the Catalan PP and former founder of Vox; Also It is linked to a crime that occurred on Pulianas Avenue in Granada linked to drug trafficking and organized crime, as recommended by the “IDEAL of Grenada”. A year after the assassination attempt, the investigation is still open and international cooperation remains essential.
In June, key arrest in the Netherlands
The key arrest took place on June 19, when police confirmed he had been arrested in the Netherlands the author of the attack, Mehrez Ayari, a 37-year-old French citizen of Tunisian origin, wanted by histhis is the person who shot in the middle of the street in the center of Madrid in Vidal-Quadras.
On the fugitive fell a International arrest warrant issued by the National Court and for the investigators, his arrest was transcendental for the clarification of the assassination attempt.
The arrest in Pinos Puente joins seven others already registered. On September 2, the Police reported the arrest of a man of Tunisian nationality, brother of the author of the attack suffered by Alejo Vidal-Quadras. He was accused of direct participation in the planning and logistics of the attack.
The investigation determined that Mehrez Ayari had multiple criminal records in France, his country of residence, as well as that on the day of the terrorist attack, he had covered his face with a motorcycle helmet before shoot point-blank in the face in Vidal-Quadras.
Order from Iran
After the arrest of Mehrez Ayari, the investigation sources confirmed that the main hypothesis of the assassination attempt indicated that participation ordered from Iran by the Mocro Maffia, a powerful Dutch-Moroccan criminal organization on the radar of many European countries for its extreme violence.
Previously, on April 30, national police officers also arrested a woman in the Netherlands for her alleged participation in financing and preparation of the attack. The person under investigation is a Dutch national and was arrested using a European Arrest and Surrender Order (OEDE) issued by Spain.
In January, as part of a police investigation, one of the alleged perpetrators of the assassination attempt, a Venezuelan citizen holding an international search warrant for a terrorism crime in Spain.
The investigation carried out by the General Police Information Commission had already led to the arrest of three other people in Spain. The National Court sent to prison for attempted terrorist assassination a detainee in Lanjarón (Granada), a Spanish citizen converted to Islam in its Shiite dimension, and released his companion, a woman of British origin, with measures precautionary measure, as well as a third detainee in Fuengirola (Málaga).
Police investigation
Police reported on November 24 that they were maintaining several open lines of research after verifying that the attack had been prepared “meticulously for weeks before the day of the events”, November 9 in the center of Madrid in broad daylight, “carrying out surveillance of the victim, purchases of materials for its execution and meetings in different parts of Spain”.
February 23, Alejo Vidal-Quadras held a press conference in Madrid in which he told the “miracle” by which he saved his life. “I have no doubt that it was the Iranian regime,” he repeated several times, emphasizing the so-called Iranian trail.
Appearing before the media at an event at the Madrid Press Association, Vidal-Quadras warned that he would not give up “his whole life” to support the Iranian opposition and called for stronger measures to the European Union, such as the closure of embassies and the expulsion of the personnel that this country has deployed in the West.
In addition, he expressed his confidence in the ongoing investigation at the National Court and in the investigations of the General Information Commission of the National Police, while recognizing that “it is not easy to establish the relationship between detained hitmen and the Iranian regime. “I hope to have all the confidence and respect in the Spanish judicial system,” he stressed.
