General Information Central Anti-Terrorist Unit of the Police Station (CGI) National Police has intuition, technology and experience. With them, for the cause of the jihadi universe, a constant storm travels Spain 4 out of 5 alert level since 2015.

This intelligence unit prepares the defining moment for national security and, in essence, its agents work so that nothing happens. Simple and complex at the same time. Prevention as a basis. This is the station that never sleeps.

The world has accessed it at the hand of its maximum responsible, who makes a good analysis of it you backstage As far as possible, the fight against jihadi terrorism in our country draws from its main weapon: anticipation. Work, work and more work, he summarizes.

Spain has become the country in the world with the most operations against international jihadist terrorism every year. Most of them belong to this police station. The head of the unit, however, does not like to dwell on the figures, which are overwhelming: 175 operations and 395 captives since 2014.

The chief commissioner repels praise, shuns stereotypes and shuns agents from any kind of spectacle because the team he directs subtly relishes subtlety.

This unit focuses on everything from people who educate themselves, those who educate others, those who finance and collaborate, those who are ready to take action, including those who integrate. Huh.

Our priority is to anticipate as we encounter unexpected behavior. We do not waste a minute in neutralizing the threat. We are on top of everything, he warns. All this involves monitoring money routes, physical and virtual locations, because, as indicated, most of the investigation comes from monitoring social networks.

Controlling the Internet, he explains, is fundamental. daisho He uses it, among other things, to appeal to lone wolves around the world, who, seeing the impossibility of organizing due to police pressure, encouraged them to act with knives and outrage. This is the so called cheap jihad.

It is not possible to speak of zero risk in Spain, but on a daily basis the entity tracks jihadism and is active in case of any suspicion. Its chief curator is engaged with these analyses, which he follows up to the minute. It is clear that jihadism is multifaceted, elastic and imperative. And on this basis the unit works. The casuistry is very diverse.

The police station has detained highly dangerous returnees, as was the case in 2020, when agents were arrested almera for the son of whom he was the spokesman al Qaeda when attack twin Towers, He had fought and was stopped on his way back. He got into a small boat and was passing through Spain. He arrived with false documents and had rented an apartment in Almeria for a month. The National Intelligence Center (CNI) assisted in the operation.

A year ago, in 2019, the unit found a young man of Moroccan origin who had explosive ancestors at home. He was ready to take the plunge, take action.

Particularly graphic was also the operation in which another man was arrested, who had a poison manual and went to work next to him. Elizabeth II Canal. Again, anticipation. The only way to prevent is to stop, the abyss.

The current of jihadism in Spain is bluntly underscored by the head of the unit: most of the operations are the arrests of people and groups that are in the process of radicalisation.

But what happens when a business blows up? The unit steals the hours from the clock. The agents have three days to analyze the tools to expedite the action and produce them in court. They are full day shifts. 72 hours without rest. Thus the team spent a Christmas.

As a curiosity, the chief commissioner gives reasons why jihadists send messages in Spanish over the network. Jihad is good for Spain to attract the South American world, so they launch messages in our language. In fact, there have been bilateral operations, although, as they indicate, they have been very few.

The Central Counter-Terrorist Unit of the General Information Commissariat deals with intelligence and judicial policing, and although jihadists are its most well-known aspect, they also handle cases of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

Despite the importance of his work—his investigation is one of the most persecuted by the media—the principle by which the entity is governed leads its agents to flee the spotlight. Work is no one’s success in particular. This general information is from the police station, concludes the chief police officer.

Beginning of the conflict in Spain

The history of jihadism in Spain did not begin on 11-M. I started in 1985 torren de ardozo What is probably the most forgotten attack. The head of the unit is aware of this. He quickly rescues her at the start of the encounter to illustrate the evolution of this type of terrorism.

that first attack al Qaeda In the national territory, he registered 18 dead and 82 wounded and was very frequently registered by Americans due to its proximity to the North American base. The police backbone in the fight against this type of terrorism had to change its strategy with the 11-M attacks in 2004, after focusing for decades on ETA. The transfer was not painful.

We know the terrain of terrorism. We just had to change the way we worked, migrate the processes we used to. Agents learn by doing. We learn by running after terrorists. This path, the Chief Commissioner continues, was marked by the development of jihad and it was the General Information Commission itself, along with its heads, that decided that we had to turn to the new horizons that we had before us.

The team is the perfect tool that brings together investigators, 80 translators, secret agents and confidants, a key figure to the flourishing of many investigations. Seeing without seeing