Counter-terrorist experts see more risk of return of jihadists by land routes in the Balkans than by small boat

MADRID, 27 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Police commanders of the Information Services of the National Police and the Civil Guard have stressed this Thursday the threat posed by the return of jihadists, stressing that land routes such as the Balkans are more worrying than those that access Spain by boat .

"In August we have practiced the detention of a returnee along the Balkan route, which is more worrying; when the returnees come by boat they are subject to a biometric check and in some way there is a review, but going through the land borders is more simple", has indicated the main curator Manuel Rodríguez García-Risco.

In his speech at the 9th Elcano Forum on Global Terrorism, García-Risco recalled operations by the General Information Commissariat against combatants who came from Algeria, but had returned from Syria through Africa "or some on plane flights to Nairobi".

In this way, it has highlighted the relevance of attending to the flows of returnees once the self-styled Caliphate of DAESH fell in Syria and Iraq, something that does not rule out that it could be reproduced in African countries such as Mali. "As it is, at any moment a sanctuary is reproduced and people start to travel and train there, and we have them here next door," he pointed out.

Among the risks, he has cited the release of prisoners such as the 800 who managed to get out of a jail in Nigeria or the "facilities" they find to return from Turkey.

In opposition to this, he has spoken of the "structured return" by institutions of people held in camps in northern Syria. He has also cited the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan, seeing it as a threat that some "could sneak in" on the fringes of the refugees.

The Chief Colonel of the Civil Guard, Francisco José Vázquez, has stressed the "enormous activity" that is often carried out outside criminal proceedings by prosecutors and judges for the early detection of radicalism, acknowledging that it can currently be said that it is the main "headache".

In this sense, he has alluded to cases where there is a "psychopathy" and has cited recent Civil Guard operations such as the one that led to the arrest of a former Spanish soldier arrested in Zaragoza and who lived in the town of El Pont de Suert (Lérida ).

To questions from the moderator, the person in charge of the Civil Guard has debated the acquittal sentences of detainees for jihadist terrorism, pointing out the difficulty that it has in many cases to substantiate criminal types implanted in 2015 such as self-indoctrination with evidence.

"We have been learning as a result of the sentences," Vázquez assured, in line with a previous intervention by his colleague from the Police. "It is not an excuse, but we make decisions with non-existent preparatory acts", this command of the Civil Guard has continued. "It is more complicated to instruct a crime of self-indoctrination than an ETA crime with 20 deaths or a kidnapping," he pointed out.