Under the smoke and among the bullets of the Syrian war, Mohamed El Maimouni He had time to take several photographs armed with an assault rifle and posing like a war movie protagonist on the front line of the fight. A powerful image served this jihadist to spread his terrorist propaganda. “Holocaust of the invaders”he came to proclaim on his traditional channels. This dangerous Moroccan and his companion, also detained, Mohamed Aharchi were the first foreign terrorist fighters with links to Spain who entered clandestinely through the Balkan route. An exhaustive and decisive investigation by experts from the General Information Commissioner’s Office (CGI) of the National Police led to them now being sentenced to 10 and 7 years in prison by the National Court.
These two terrorists were part of the organization known as “Jabhat al-Nusra”which is the satellite of Al-Qaeda in Syria. Its main objectives were the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the establishment of an Islamic Caliphate in Syria under Sharia law through violence and war like DAESH. The organization carried out more than 190 terrorist attacks with explosives and firearms in which it is estimated that more than 1,300 people died.
This faction evolved over time and adapted to the evolution of the war in Syria. Now, it is part of a much larger structure located in the northwest of the region that has the name of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS). It was led by its emir Abu Muhammad Al-Golani, and was composed mainly of Syrian citizens, although it also incorporated foreign fighters into its ranks. This equation is where Mohamed Aharchi and Mohamed El Maimouni come in.
The role of jihadists in the war
Their roles in the Syrian war were very different. Maimouniwho had a large family in Spain, was part of the operations and caused casualties while Aharchi It had tasks related to the logistics of the battalions. LA RAZÓN has been able to access the photographs that these two subjects took on the battlefield to later boast and attract followers among the jihadist public.
Maimouni, 31 years old, had no criminal record in our country but had a European Arrest Warrant (OEDE) issued by the National Court thanks to investigations by anti-terrorist experts. Ahrachi was indoctrinated in 2014 in his hometown of Tangier in radical Islamic ideology with the promise of reaching paradise by dying for the cause of Allah. This man, a year later, moved to Syria with the purpose of participating active in the process.
The person who endorsed him within the organization of Ahrar AlSham He died in 2016 and was separated from the group so he had to join “Jabhat al-Nusra”, after passing a selection process based on ruling out that he was a “spy” and initial military training training. This period was where the two dangerous jihadists met.
Aharchi participated in combat and was stationed on the front line in Jabal Turkman, a mountain located about 80 kilometers from the Syrian city of Yisir Al-Shugur. For his part, El Maimouni, who lived in Spain from 2000 to 2010, participated in indoctrination and recruitment activities. All these activities were echoed on social networks, during that period of time, through various publications.
An anti-terrorist investigation by the CGI revealed that he maintained contact with jihadists who were on the radar of the Spanish authorities. On his Facebook profile he even posted a photomontage with his face half hidden in a dominant position over Bashar al-Assad and the corpse of Vladimir Putin dressed in orange prisoner jumpsuits. “Idlib, holocaust of the invaders,” was the text that accompanied the image.
The return from Syria
These two foreign fighters had to leave Syria due to the development of the conflict. Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham was trying to reach agreements with various countries, such as Russia or the United States, to participate in a peace process and to do so it had to separate itself from all terrorist activity, so that any power could negotiate with them. They tried to clean up their ranks, keep only Syrians, and began to expel from their territory all foreign fighters who did not adhere to the new leadership. They left the country in the first months of 2022.
The paths of these two combatants joined again in Istanbul. Mohamed Aharchiwho found work in a sewing workshop, and El Maimouni began an entry trip into Europe of approximately one month from June 6 to July 10, 2022, through the following countries: Turkey, Bulgaria , Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia and Austria.
The routes included wooded areas on foot and followed an application of “points” that had been provided by third parties. The two jihadists, accompanied by a third person, arrived in Sofia (Bulgaria) on June 15, 2022 and then went to Pirot (Serbia) where they bought bus tickets to Belgrade, a city where they arrived on June 20, 2022. 2022. Once in the Serbian capital they headed to the border town of Horgos.
This enormous journey, where they also used the services of an organization of Moroccan origin, stopped at one of the European borders. They were identified and returned to Austria where they ended up arrested. All of this occurred near the Passau border crossing on July 10, 2022. After this intervention, the paths of Mohamed Aharchi and Mohamed El Maimouni parted ways.
The end of the jihadists’ journey
El Maimouni was extradited to Spain and remained in provisional prison while Aharchi was taken to a refugee camp in Salzburg (Austria) where he was picked up by his family and transferred to Spain to the family home in Mataró. The anti-terrorist experts of the National Police delved for days into his figure and to learn about his story. Who was the person accompanying a jihadist who had been persecuted for years? It didn’t take them long to get this response.
This is how they found his profiles on social networks, the terrorist propaganda and his actions in Syria, and days after being detected he was arrested in Mataró on August 2, 2022. These dangerous individuals even went so far as to promote that the war in Ukraine could be an option for jihadist fighters.
After years of diligence, the CGI managed a few months ago for the National Court to impose some of the highest sentences in memory of these two individuals. Mohamed Aharchi was sentenced to seven years in prison as the perpetrator of a crime of integration into a terrorist organization. His companion in battle Mohamed El Maimouni was punished to ten years in prison for the same crime.
The investigation by the General Information Commission had the support of the Provincial Information Brigades of Barcelona and Valencia in collaboration with the National Intelligence Center. In addition, he had the close help of the FBI, Moroccan DGST, Austrian DSN, German police authorities (BKA) and EUROPOL in addition to the assistance of the Spanish National Central Offices of INTERPOL and SIRENE. An example of the close international cooperation that exists to locate and neutralize the risks posed by jihadist fighters who unsuccessfully seek to return to Europe.
The importance of the investigation carried out by CGI is reflected in the high sentences that Justice has imposed on these two dangerous subjects. It so happens that this was the first time that two jihadists were arrested, in this case called “Foreign Terrorist Fighters”, with links to Spain after entering Europe in a coordinated and clandestine manner using the Balkan route.