Spanish police on Tuesday arrested a member of a Catalan separatist movement suspected of orchestrating a demonstration that saw activists blockade roads and usher traffic through toll barriers in a protest against the government as prosecutors brought accusations of terrorism and rebellion.

Investigative sources said the detainee was a woman and a suspected leader of the Committees for the Defense of the Republic (CDR), a network of local unofficial authorities created to preserve the Catalan independence declaration that was ruled illegal and scrapped by Spain's judiciary. </s> The Spanish High Court has ordered the arrest of two people linked to separatist grassroots groups known as the Committees for the Defense of the Republic (CDR). According to official sources, the two are wanted on charges of rebellion and terrorism for their involvement in the push for Catalan independence.

The Civil Guard has so far arrested one woman from Viladecans, near Barcelona, who is accused of making and distributing an audio recording with instructions that preempted acts of vandalism during Easter week. During this period, CDR activists blocked several major highways and on April 1, members entered toll plazas on the AP-7 and C-32 highways, and forced the barriers open to let drivers through for free.

The CDR group allows cars to pass on the AP-7. CDR CARDEDÉU

The arrest orders follow last week’s warnings from High Court prosecutors that they would pursue “criminal investigations of all types” into the group. In its statement, public prosecution services said that CDR’s actions “not only endanger public peace and constitutional order, but also the very essence of the democratic system.”

There are around 300 Committees throughout Catalonia, and their actions have been growing in number and scope ever since Germany arrested Carles Puigdemont, the former premier who fled to Belgium following the failed independence declaration last year. After his arrest, the CDR blocked the main highways in Catalonia for a number of hours before being dismantled by the Catalan regional police force.

The CDR are a continuation of the Committees for the Defense of the Referendum, groups that began to organize last year in July – online and through instant message service apps such as Telegram – to stop the central government from intervening in the illegal referendum on Catalan independence.

After the referendum took place, the CDR declared they were Catalan “republic defense committees” and played an active role in the “national strike” called for October 3, occupying buildings such as the high-speed AVE station in Girona. Although the group’s core continues to be anti-establishment radicals, students, professionals and retirees have also joined their ranks.

English version by Melissa Kitson. </s> Catalan regional security forces early Tuesday launched an anti-terror operation against suspected members of a terror cell that was allegedly preparing a series of attacks and arrested one person, according to sources close to the investigation.

Catalonia's regional police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra, was expecting to make additional arrests as part of the ongoing operation taking place in the cities of Barcelona and Igualada on court orders. </s> Image copyright EPA Image caption Major Trapero won plaudits for his handling of terror attacks in Barcelona and nearby last August, but was dismissed following the referendum

The former chief of Catalonia's police force, Josep Lluis Trapero, has been charged over events linked with last year's independence referendum.

He faces two Spanish counts of sedition and one of criminal organisation.

Other former regional officials were also charged by investigating judge Carmen Lamela. She accuses them of co-operating with an organised plan to seek Catalonia's secession.

Spain's constitutional court ruled the 1 October referendum illegal.

It is another setback for those who support the establishment of an independent state.

Many of the movement's most prominent figures face charges and some are in detention or the subject of arrest warrants.

The movement's former leader, Carles Puigdemont, is in a German jail while judicial authorities consider a Spanish extradition request.

The charges faced by the accused relate to events on 20 and 21 September, when crowds tried to obstruct Spanish police raiding devolved ministry buildings in a bid to prevent the referendum, and the 1 October referendum itself.

Judge Lamela alleged that Major Trapero's force adopted a passive stance to avoid taking action against the organisers of the independence drive and failed to respond to requests for help from the Civil Guard, who were acting on the Madrid government's orders.

In addition, she said, his force had leaked their action plans to those organising the referendum.

Two more members of the regional police and an official with the regional interior department were also charged with sedition - under Spanish law, preventing officers of the law from properly executing their duties.

The four accused are scheduled to testify before the judge on 16 April. </s> A Frenchman has been arrested after sparking a terror scare at Barcelona's Sagrada Familia when he was caught carrying five handgun magazines for a 9mm pistol.

A small dagger and a 'semiautomatic knife' are also thought to have been discovered in a rucksack he was carrying when he tried to get into the city centre temple.

Police are said to have found a weapon with its series number erased in his car, which was parked nearby.

The man, understood to be a soldier, was being held this morning in police cells ahead of a behind-closed-doors court appearance. The arrest happened just before 5.30pm yesterday.

Sagrada Familia security guards alerted cops after detecting the munition in a rucksack as the Frenchman passed through a metal detector on his way into the Gaudi-designed temple, one of the intended targets of the terrorists behind the August 17 2017 Las Ramblas massacre.

Local reports said Spanish authorities had confirmed he was a soldier after he claimed he had been doing shooting practice in the south of France and left the magazines in his rucksack by mistake.

The detainee, who was with his girlfriend, is said to have cooperated fully with police.

A spokesman for the regional Mossos d'Esquadra said he was unable to confirm reports the Frenchman was a soldier or the possibility he was planning a terror attack had been ruled out because the investigation 'remained open.'

He said: 'The investigation remains open. All I can confirm at this stage is a man has been arrested in the vicinity of the Sagrada Familia.

'He is currently in police custody. He can be held for up to 72 hours so he could go before a judge today or tomorrow.

'He was arrested on suspicion of illegal possession of weapons.'

Last week it emerged police in Barcelona had been warned a Moroccan man could carry out a terror attack on Christmas Day.

Officers were told the Casablanca-born terrorist may try to commit a spectacular massacre in the Catalan capital using a coach or similar type of vehicle.

The terror warning was highlighted by several Spanish papers on Christmas Eve who said they had seen an internal alert sent to regional Mossos d'Esquadra officers.

The revelation surfaced after the US state department tweeted: 'Spain. Exercise heightened caution around areas of vehicle movement including buses in the Las Ramblas area of Barcelona during Christmas and New Year.

'Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, and other public areas.'

Catalan Interior Minister Miquel Buch later confirmed the existence of the terror alert.

He said in a radio interview: 'It's one more of those we receive. No doubt this case is a little different because of the US State Department tweet.

'All are investigated and worked on thoroughly. This is one more.'

Moroccan Younes Abouyaaqoub, 22, used a rented van to mow down and kill 15 people including British-born Julian Cadman, seven, in Barcelona's famous Las Ramblas on August 17 2017.

More than 130 people were injured.

Police shot dead Younes in vineyards in Subirats an hour's drive west of Barcelona after he went on the run following the Barcelona massacre. He was later buried in an unmarked grave in a funeral held in secret in his homeland.

The terrorists behind the deadly Barcelona attack, and another hours later in nearby Cambrils, had planned to use butane gas cylinders to blow up iconic landmarks including the Sagrada Familia.

More than 20 butane gas canisters were found intact in the wreckage of their bomb factory.

Traces of triacetone triperoxide, a peroxide-based explosive known as TATP or the Mother of Satan which police believe the terror gang were going to use to detonate the gas, were also discovered. </s> Image copyright EPA Image caption Police said the man had entered the building with the aim of attacking officers

A man wielding a large knife and shouting in Arabic targeted officers on Monday at a police station south of Barcelona, in what police are calling a terrorist attack.

The attacker, said to be 29 and of Algerian origin, was shot dead as he lunged towards officers, said police.

Spain's north-east Catalan region has been marking the anniversary of the 2017 jihadist attack on Barcelona.

However, police said they had found no evidence the incidents were linked.

The attacker, identified locally as Abdelouahab Taib, approached the police station in the town of Cornellà de Llobregat at 05:52 (03:52 GMT) on Monday, buzzing the intercom and demanding to be allowed in.

When a woman officer behind a reception window opened the door, the man lunged at her "with a clear intent to kill", Police Commissioner Rafel Comes told reporters.

The man shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) as he rushed forward.

The officer opened fire and the attacker was fatally wounded, the commissioner said, without saying how many shots were fired. The officer had used a gun to save her life, he said, although it was unclear if she was behind a glass partition at the time.

"For now we are treating it as a terrorist attack," he said, although he stressed there was nothing at this stage to link him to the jihadist cell involved in the attacks on Barcelona's Las Ramblas venue on 17 August last year and Cambrils hours later.

Sixteen people were killed in the twin attacks and the man who drove a van into civilians on Las Ramblas was eventually tracked down and shot dead on 21 August.

Abdelouahab Taib had been living in Spain for several years and had a foreigners' identity number. He had no criminal record and lived with a Spanish woman, although local media reported that they had begun divorce proceedings.

Members of the Catalan police force and other authorities searched the man's home a short distance from the police station while his partner was questioned.

Image copyright EPA Image caption Police searched the man's home on Monday near the scene of the attack

Police stations across Spain were put on alert as a result of Monday's incident.

Spain has been on its second highest terrorist alert level - four out of five - since June 2015.

Teresa Cunillera, the Spanish government's representative in Catalonia, had earlier refused to be drawn on the motive for Monday's incident until police had investigated further.

"Reaching conclusions is very hard before they have carried out the minimum of checks and looked into the motives," she told Spanish radio. </s> Catalan regional security forces on Tuesday made 17 arrests as part of an operation launched against suspected members of a terror cell that was allegedly planning a series of attacks, police said.

Under the codename "Operation Alexandria," police carried out five raids in Barcelona, mainly in the Ciutat Vella neighborhood, and one in Igualada on the outskirts of Barcelona. </s> Catalan regional security forces on Tuesday made 14 arrests as part of an operation launched against suspected members of a terror cell allegedly preparing a series of attacks, police said.

Under the codename "Operation Alexandria," police carried out five raids in Barcelona, mainly in the Ciutat Vella neighborhood, leading to the arrests of 13 suspects, while another individual was arrested in Igualada on the outskirts of Barcelona. </s> Police in Spain on Tuesday arrested 17 men connected to a suspected network of Islamic State supporters, five of whom are accused of forming a terror cell planning to launch attacks in Barcelona, with the rest suspected of having stolen passports from tourists to support the aspiring jihadists.

The group had been the subject of covert investigation for 18 months, Catalonia’s regional police force said, meaning the probe started at a similar time to the terrorist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils of August 2017 in which 16 died.

Speaking after the raids, Miquel Buch, Catalonia’s interior chief, said there had been no risk “at any time” of the group pulling off an attack as they were being closely tracked by the police with support from Spain’s CNI secret service.

“Those arrested wanted to commit attacks, but that doesn’t mean they had the actual capacity to carry out a terrorist act”, Mr Buch said.

Five men aged between 33 and 44 were believed to have made up the hardcore of the cell. Police said three of them are from Algeria, while one is Libyan the other Iraqi. All of the suspects lived in Barcelona.
The Civil Guard arrests one woman and warrants a man from the Committees for the Defense of the Republic, focused on the defense of Catalan Republic, accused of terrorism and sedition.