Spain Police Arrest 8 Muslims, Seize 265 Pounds of Explosives

MADRID —  Spanish police said Saturday that they broke up a gang of Shiite Muslim terrorists who imported at least a ton of plastic explosives for planned attacks on U.S. targets in Europe.

Government spokesman Eugenio Burriel told a news conference in Valencia that eight suspects were arrested and police were searching through a 19-ton shipment of canned goods from Sidon, Lebanon. They have already found 265 pounds of plastic explosives.

Police reported they had examined only 8% of the shipment and expected to find between a ton and 1 1/2 tons of explosives when they opened all of the 25,000 cans.

“This is not a Spanish (terrorist) operation. It is an operation linked to international activities,” Burriel said.

Burriel said three of those arrested have been identified as members of Hezbollah (Party of God), a pro-Iranian Shiite terrorist group in Lebanon.

In Madrid, national police spokesman Manuel Gimenez said the eight suspects carried a variety of passports, and four had Iraqi documents. He said the arrests were made in Madrid and Valencia, beginning Friday, after the discovery of explosives in the shipment of canned foods.