A woman was detained on Wednesday following an early morning raid at her house in Alicante. Police say that Dolores Hidalgo, a 36 year old Spaniard, was arrested because of her links to the terrorist organisation DAESH as she attempted to move to Syria or Iraq where she was to join the organisation with her four children.
The woman, who was thought to be from Murcia, tried to travel with her 4 children in 2014 to the Syrian-Iraqi zone, where her husband is said to have died in the conflict. She is said to have been working with ISIS in Alicante
According to local residents the woman had hardly any relationship with anyone in the neighbourhood. In fact on local dweller said that whenever he saw her getting onto a bus she never spoke anyone or sat with any men.
However another resident who knew her through her children said that she was a “normal and nice” girl. She added that the woman had lived in the area for 4 or 5 years and although it was known that she was married to a man of Moroccan nationality no-one had ever seen her husband.
Footage shared by the police showed the woman being arrested and weapons being removed from the property.
A Police statement read: ‘Spanish National Police have arrested Dolores Hidalgo, a 36-year-old widow of a man who is suspected of having fought and died in the ranks of the so-called Islamic State.’
The Spanish Press reported that Hidalgo attempted to travel by road through France to get to her husband, but gave up when she heard he had died. The woman was said to have been advertising for a new husband on social media on which she also praised the work of her dead husband.
A government spokesman, Juan Carlos Moragues, also confirmed that the woman carried out propaganda work of a jihadist activity through social networks, in which she “published some very radical, aggressive and very violent entries”.
The four children are now in the care of the social services in the Valencian Generalitat. They are said to be aged four, six, seven and 15 years. The oldest of them, according to a neighbour, had once told her that her father had been shot dead.
Moragues praised the work of the police together with the coordination of the State Security Corps and the Moroccan intelligence services. He noted that since the terrorism alert was increased to level 4 in June 2015, 190 jihadists have been detained in Spain. This is the first detention in the Comunitat Valenciana in 2017.
The Alicante Arrests come on the back of reported threats by ISIS on British holiday destinations here in Spain.
Last week’s British press said that the terror group is beginning to publish more propaganda in Spanish to ‘influence radicals in the country’. They are said to have launched a campaign to hire Spanish translators, which indicates a growing interest in attracting Spanish-speaking foreign fighters.”
The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has not changed its advice on travelling to Spain.
It is still deemed as having a “general threat” from terrorism, rather than “high”. Spain is currently at level four on the anti-terror alert – the same ranking as the UK.
Images courtesy Guardia Civil
