Earlier this week Moroccan police arrested 23-year-old Zouhair El Bouhdidi, claiming the radical Islamist was plotting a terror attack in the Spanish city of Seville.
El Bouhdidi, along with the rest of his immediate family, has been living in the Spanish city for the past 14 years and, according to police, had plotted to become a suicide bomber, Spanish news site El Espanol reports.
Police say the 23-year-old had planned to use the homemade explosive TATP, commonly referred to as “Mother of Satan”, to carry out the suicide attack.
TATP was also the explosive of choice for the Barcelona terrorists, who allegedly managed to produce 450 lbs of the chemical compound and plotted to bomb the Eiffel Tower in Paris with a truck bomb.
Moroccan police were able to arrest El Bouhdidi after communicating with Spanish police with authorities believing the trip was meant as a farewell to his family members before he carried out the attack during the Easter Holy Week.
The Spanish Interior Ministry had already boosted security precautions during Holy Week and plan to keep a heightened level of security for the Spanish national elections later this month.
El Espanol also revealed the background of El Bouhdidi, claiming that his father Abderrahim is an Imam in a poor section of Seville and that he had previously completed an Arab and Islamic Studies degree at Seville University.
Aberrahim El Bouhdidi claimed that his son had gone to Morocco to visit his sick grandmother and rejected the charges against the 23-year-old saying, “my son did not intend to do any harm to anyone.”
The foiling of the plot comes after another potential terror attack was thwarted in Italy earlier this week. Two men, an Italian convert and a Moroccan migrant, were arrested by Italian authorities earlier this week after becoming radicalised and talking about committing lone wolf style attacks.
Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com
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