Third arrest in ETA bomb plot

2 March 2004

VITORIA – A council worker was arrested Tuesday in connection with the thwarted ETA attack on Madrid.

The Guardia Civil arrested Beñat Barrondo Olabarri, 28, from Miravalles, in the Basque Country, at 8am.

Olabarri works for a local council in Llodio near Bilbao, in the north west of Spain.

The arrest comes after police detained two suspected ETA terrorists, Gorka Vidal and Irkus Badill, Sunday as the pair were driving a lorry laiden with more than half a tonne of explosives.

The two were stopped at Cañaveras, about 141km west of Madrid.

Security sources have said the pair were heading to Madrid to chose a target for a ‘spectacular’ attack on the capital.

Maps were found in the lorry which showed important state buildings, the main Barajas airport and other landmarks. 

On possible target could have been La Razon newspaper, the right-wing daily which broke the story about a leading left-wing Catalan politician involved in secret talks with the group.

The story caused a scandal, leading the resignation of Josep Lluis Carod-Rovira, and caused political damage to the Left in Spain in the run-up to the 14 March general election.

ETA has declared a truce in Catalonia but its “armed struggle” against the rest of the Spanish state continues.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

                                         Subject: Spanish news