A Spanish man has been arrested in north Africa on suspicion of recruiting child soldiers for ISIS .
Civil Guards in the autonomous Spanish enclave of Ceuta made the arrest early this morning, the country’s Interior Ministry said.
The 34-year-old Spaniard, who lives in Ceuta, was held after investigators probed the departure of several youngsters to Syria.
The suspect was described as an Islamic extremist, who is said to have targeted vulnerable children through a cultural centre and brainwashed them into joining the militants.
An Interior Ministry spokesman said in a statement: “The Civil Guard began their investigations after detecting the departure of several youngsters from Ceuta to Syria.
“As a result of these investigations, they were able to discover that the detainee was recruiting and indoctrinating vulnerable youngsters he offered to help get to war zones and join the terrorist organisation Daesh .”
Earlier this week two Islamic State recruiters were arrested in Catalunya and the Canary Islands on suspicion of recruiting for the extremist group and making threats against Spain and France.
The 32-year-old man from Mataro near Barcelona and a 19-year-old woman living on Fuerteventura have been remanded in prison.
They were both Moroccan but lived legally in Spain.
On Thursday Irish-Algerian Ali Charaf Damache was detained in Barcelona on an international arrest warrant issued by the US .
He is wanted by the FBI for conspiracy in a foiled plot to murder a Swedish cartoonist whose depiction of the Prophet Mohammed caused outrage in the Muslim world.
Ceuta, one of Spain’s two north African enclaves, is known as a hotbed of Islamic fundamentalism.
Most of the terror suspects arrested so far in Spain this year have been lifted in Ceuta or its only other north African enclave Melilla.
