20K Military Uniforms Meant for ISIS Are Intercepted

There were enough uniforms 'to equip an entire army': Spain
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 4, 2016 9:29 AM CST
20K Military Uniforms Meant for ISIS Are Intercepted
Photo of seized uniforms from Spain's National Police Corps' Twitter feed.   (Twitter)

Spanish authorities seized containers holding about 20,000 military uniforms and other supplies last month from two port towns, all destined for ISIS and Nusra Front jihadi fighters, the country's Interior Ministry said Thursday in a statement. It was contraband said to be able to "equip an entire army. ... The [three] containers which carried the military uniforms were declared as secondhand clothes so as to not raise suspicions and be able to pass different customs inspections without any difficulty," the statement continued, per the AFP. The confiscations in Valencia and Algeciras are tied to the arrests in February of seven people accused of running a "very active and effective business network" that reportedly helped the militant groups financially and logistically.

Five of the seven people arrested in February were Spanish citizens, the New York Times reports, while the New York Daily News says the other two detained were a Moroccan and a Syrian. An Interior Ministry spokesman says the clothes themselves were not made in Spain; a company owned by one of the suspect reportedly imported used clothing. The uniforms, which weighed nearly five tons, were "perfectly prepared for combat," per NPR, which notes that officials did not say precisely where the uniforms had been bound for next. Investigators are still trying to figure out where the uniforms originated from. (More Spain stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X