País Vasco francés
He was arrested several times in the French Basque Country between 1975 and 1977, and confined to different French regions by French authorities. However, he was released and by 1978 he lived in Anglet. By then Argala was a charismatic leader of ETA (m), with the PNV historic figure Telesforo Monzon calling him in the Txiberta talks, where a possible Basque nationalist collaboration was discussed and eventually ruled out. However, the Spanish home office was targeting him and tracked him down, as declared by mercenaries who were being used to execute the Government's policy in the French Basque Country. Argala was assassinated by a car bomb on 21 December 1978 in the town of Anglet, in the French Basque Country.