The mastermind and teacher who helped ISIS members in Morocco to kill and later beheaded 2 tourists from Denmark and Norway may be a dual citizen of Switzerland and Spain. The Danish student Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, and 28-year-old Norwegian Maren Ueland were found dead at an isolated hiking spot in the High Atlas mountains, south of Marrakesh on December 17.
A Swiss citizen putting in place communication tools involving new technology and of training terrorists in marksmanship was arrested. He lives in Marrakesh.
The counter-terror organ added he subscribed to “extremist ideology” and also has Spanish citizenship.
The ongoing investigation into the double murder uncovered the man was involved in the “recruitment of Moroccans and sub-Saharans to carry out terrorist plans in Morocco.
Ahead of Saturday’s arrest, Moroccan authorities had previously arrested 18 people for alleged links to the murders.
The four main suspects were arrested in Marrakesh and belonged to a cell inspired by Islamic State group ideology, Morocco’s counter-terror chief Abdelhak Khiam told AFP this week.
Morocco, which relies heavily on tourism income, suffered a jihadist attack in 2011, when a bomb blast at a cafe in Marrakesh’s famed Jamaa El Fna Square killed 17 people, mostly European tourists.
An attack in the North African state’s financial capital Casablanca killed 33 people in 2003.