A British ‘ISIS rapper’ who was once suspected of being Jihadi John has been arrested at a hideout in Spain, Spanish media claimed today.
Spanish newspaper Ideal reported that British-Egyptian jihadist Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary was the ‘foreign terrorist fighter’ detained in a raid in Almeria yesterday.
Authorities did not name him but described the man as ‘one of Europe’s most wanted terrorist fighters’ and said he was an Egyptian national.
Police said the man and two others had been hiding at an apartment in Almeria after sneaking into Spain from North Africa and using the coronavirus pandemic as cover to keep a low profile.
British terrorist Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary (pictured) is reported to be the ‘foreign terrorist fighter’ detained by Spanish anti-terror police in a raid in Almeria
Abdel Bary is thought to have been arrested after a raid in the early hours of yesterday in an an area of Almeria called Cerro de San Cristobal
Abdel Bary is thought to have been arrested after a raid in the early hours of yesterday in an an area of Almeria called Cerro de San Cristobal.
Jean-Charles Brisard, the head of the French terror watchdog CAT, said that ‘according to our information’ Abdel Bary was one of the three men arrested, matching the newspaper report.
The three men are expected to appear before a judge in a closed hearing at a court in Almeria in the next few hours.
Police said today that their agents had conducted an ‘anti-terrorist operation’ that ‘culminated in the arrest of one of the most wanted Daesh foreign terrorist fighters in Europe’, using an alternative name for ISIS.
‘Another two people have been arrested and the authorities are currently working to establish their identity and their relationship with the other man,’ police said.
Authorities said they had pounced after gathering intelligence that the fighter intended to return to Europe via Spain and may be hiding in the country.
‘Various lines of investigation were activated to find out his possible clandestine arrival in Spain and locate the chosen place to hide,’ police explained.
‘After a complex investigation it was possible to determine the circumstances of his arrival on the Almeria coast, as well as his subsequent movements, finally achieving his location and arrest.
‘Those arrested adopted iron-clad security measures, both in their journey from North Africa to our territory and in the movements they made in Almería.
‘The detainees, already in Spain, adapted their behaviour to the state of emergency [in place] as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, making few exits, separately, and always with masks to avoid being detected.’
Police said the main suspect ‘had spent several years in the Syrian-Iraqi conflict zone and has both very peculiar personality traits and an extremely violent criminal profile, which caught the attention of the European police and intelligence services’.
After joining ISIS, Abdel Bary issued threats against the West and even posted a picture of himself holding the severed head of a Syrian solder
Abdel Bary (pictured) was born in Egypt but moved to the UK as a six-year-old after his father was released from prison and was granted political asylum
Abdel Bary, a British-Egyptian former rapper from Maida Vale in London, is the son of Adel Abdel Bari who helped to kill more than 200 people in Islamist bombings in Africa in the 1990s.
The younger Abdel Bary was born in Egypt but moved to the UK as a six-year-old after his father was released from prison and was granted political asylum.
Before Abdel Bary left London he was an ambitious rapper known as Lyricist Jinn and L Jinny whose tracks were played on BBC radio stations.
Friends later described how he had converted to radical Islam after growing angry with British authorities over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In 2013 he travelled to Syria to fight with ISIS, becoming one of the earliest foreign fighters to join the terror group.
Abdel Bary issued threats against the West and even posted a picture of himself holding the severed head of a Syrian solder.
He initially emerged as a suspect in the hunt for Jihadi John, who carried out the beheadings of ISIS prisoners including journalist James Foley.
Jihadi John was eventually revealed to be Londoner Mohammed Emwazi, one of a gang of terrorists who were known as the ‘Beatles’ because of their British accents.
Spanish police released this footage of three suspects being arrested after they were discovered at an apartment in Almeria
By 2015, Abdel Bary had apparently become disillusioned with ISIS and was being hunted in Turkey after fleeing Syria.
The same year his father was jailed in the United States for his role in the 1998 al-Qaeda-linked embassy bombings in Nairobi and Tanzania.
In October 2015, Abdel Bary junior tried to have a Spanish woman flown to Turkey to join him as his bride, but the plan was thwarted by Spanish authorities.
Maria de los Angeles Cala Marquez, from Huelva, was jailed for two years in June 2018 after admitting trying to travel to Turkey to meet up with Bary and help him return to Europe.
The former hotel chamber maid was arrested when she tried to board a flight to Istanbul and travel to a secret location where Bary was on the run from western intelligence services.
According to the prosecution indictment, Cala Marquez admitted she had intended to travel to Syria to marry Abdel Bary.
The young woman had arranged her trip to Syria via Turkey and had contacted several intermediaries online to help to provide her a safe path to ISIS territory.
But the plot was foiled by Spain’s Guardia Civil paramilitary police who captured her at Madrid Airport in October 2015.