CSN News: Jihadist suspected of killing three farmers in Spain is arrested in France

Thursday, 27th March 2025 at 14:09

The French authorities, in collaboration with Guardia Civil and National Police, as well as the Mossos d’Esquadra, (Catalonia Police Force), have arrested Allal El Mourabit. He was a jihadist convicted on charges of glorifying terrorism. While serving his sentence, he escaped after removing his electronic tags. He then murdered three farmers with a machete in Navarra, and Lleida, between 2023-2024.

El Mourabit is a Moroccan truck driver who became a naturalized Spanish citizen in 2016. He was arrested for his jihadist militancy in 2016, and accused of killing 2 people in Tudela, Ribaforada, and Lleida in November 2023 and December 2023. The arrested man attacked his victims violently by surprise in all three cases. He also stole their vehicles in the two last cases.

El Mourabit was born in Vitoria and had been in prison several times for minor crimes related to his radicalism. On 27 September 2023, when he removed his telematic tracking bracelet, he escaped.

The three Spanish police forces began to coordinate their efforts almost immediately, once they realised that they were searching for the same person who committed the three murders. The interior ministry said on Wednesday that “meticulous work” carried out by forensic experts at the crime scenes enabled them to create a DNA profile which proved beyond doubt that the person now in custody is the perpetrator of all three murders.

The Guardia Civil reported that the Spanish-Moroccan had travelled on foot to rural areas where he spent the night out in the open, or in abandoned locations, killing his victims in order to steal their vehicles. Investigations revealed that after his last murder in Lleida, on 5 January, 2024, he fled to France the same night via Andorra.

The Ministry of Interior explained that the “reconstruction of his possible movement in Spain and the meticulous analysis all rural areas where the perpetrator spent the night allowed for the identification of the perpetrator.”

After the perpetrator was identified, the investigating magistrate’s office was requested to issue an arrest warrant in Europe, as it was highly likely that he would be in France. The neighbouring country was also asked to provide urgent assistance in locating this individual, which they did on 25th March. He was then arrested and taken into custody.

The investigation will be conducted by the Tudela court (Navarra) and will remain confidential.