SPAIN: Police seize one the biggest explosive caches after arresting suspected members of the Basque separatist group ETA

Record ID: 359375

  • Title: SPAIN: Police seize one the biggest explosive caches after arresting suspected members of the Basque separatist group ETA
  • Date: 14th April 2011
  • Summary: GIPUZKOA, SPAIN (APRIL 12, 2011) (REUTERS) FARM BELONGING TO ARRESTED ETA SUSPECTS VARIOUS OF POLICE VEHICLES AT FARM SECURITY FORCES OUTSIDE FARM PRO-SEPARATIST SUPPORTER STANDING AND WATCHING VARIOUS OF SECURITY FORCES OUTSIDE FARM MASKED POLICEMAN GETTING OUT OF CAR MASKED POLICEMAN HOLDING GUN VARIOUS OF PRO-SEPARTIST SUPPORTERS YELLING AT SECURITY POLICEMAN
  • Embargoed: 29th April 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Spain, Spain
  • Country: Spain
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA3GN84FJ3PNLS2A81OQHNL1D6K
  • Story Text: Police found over 800 kilos of explosive material, one of the biggest caches of its kind in Spain on Tuesday (April 12), after police raided a family farm of two suspected members of the Basque separatist group ETA, who were also arrested.
    The raid raises fears that ETA may be planning an attack despite having declared a cease-fire.
    Police raided the farm of ETA suspects brothers Igor and Aitor Esnaola after they were detained in northern Spain on Tuesday.
    They seized bomb-making material which included 850 kilograms of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, 13.5 kilograms of the explosive pentrite and detonators when they raided the farm house near the town of Legorreta, in Gipuzkoa, Spain's Interior Ministry said in a statement.
    The arrest of the Esnaola brothers came a day after French police detained another pair of suspected ETA members in France after a checkpoint shootout and overnight sweep by hundreds of police and helicopters in the Creuse region of central France on Monday (April 11).
    ETA, which has killed more than 850 people in half a century of struggle for an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southwest France, has been weakened by a string of arrests and discoveries of arms caches in Spain, France and Portugal.
    The separatists declared a permanent ceasefire on January 10, which was rejected by the Spanish government as insufficient because it did not come with full disarmament.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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