ETA suspects arrested were one of the terrorists' most active groups

ETA suspects arrested were one of the terrorists' most active groups
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By m.p. - Jul 5, 2009 - 4:06 PM
The two men were responsible for ETA's legal commandos in Spain

Asier Borrero, Itziar Plaza and Iurgi Garitagoita - EFE

The three armed ETA suspects arrested in France on Saturday were one of the terrorist organisation’s ‘most active groups, if not the most active one’ Spain’s Interior Minister has said.

The three, two men and a woman, are named as Asier Borrero, Itziar Plaza and Iurgi Garitagoita, and were taken into custody as they were leaving a McDonalds restaurant in Pau. They all appear on the Civil Guard’s list of most-wanted ETA terorrists and are what is known as ‘liberados’ – are on the ETA payroll and are known to the security forces.

Speaking in a press conference on Sunday, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba said the woman arrested, Itziar Plaza, is believed to have held a position within ETA’s military operation, and had been on the run since the beginning of 2007 when the terrorists’ Vizcaya commando was disbanded by the authorities. He said the two men were in charge of the ‘legal’ ETA commandos which operate in Spain, groups made up of militants who are not yet known to the authorities and who carry on with their daily lives when not involved in terrorist activities. Garitagoita is believed to have coordinated the ETA commando which killed Ignacio Uria, the Basque businessman killed in December 2008, and Isaias Carrasco, the Socialist councillor who was the first person killed by ETA that year.

The Ministry believes it was Asier Borrero who shot and injured a French gendarme in south eastern France last month and was also involved in a number of ETA bomb attacks.

Despite the 18 ETA suspects arrested in the past three weeks, the Minister warned that ETA can kill and will ‘more than likely try to do so again’.

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