INTELLIGENCE chiefs believe they have broken up a continent-wide al-Qaeda terror operation centred in Britain which was preparing to unleash a wave of chemical attacks in Europe.

Raids across Spain and Italy in the past 48 hours have rounded up 21 Al-Qaeda suspects, many with links to the gang in London found manufacturing the poison ricin this month. One senior police source said: “The past few weeks have seen us unpick a network of very dangerous men across Europe who we believe were very close to staging an attack.”

In Barcelona and northeastern Spain yesterday 150 police with dogs raided 12 houses, including a flat used as a mosque. They made 16 arrests. A large amount of explosive and chemical materials, detonators, timing devices and documents including false passports was seized during the pre-dawn raids.

“Those arrested were preparing to commit attacks with explosive and chemical materials,” said José María Aznar, the Spanish Prime Minister. The police have “broken up a major terrorist network”.

The Spanish raids followed Thursday’s arrests of five Moroccans at a farmhouse in northern Italy. Police who raided the farmhouse near Venice are understood to have found a stash of British passport documents. They are believed to belong to men with North African names, living in Britain.

Scotland Yard officers want to discover if these papers are real or fake, but further arrests are now expected in Britain. They also want to know why the five men arrested at Badia Polesine, near Rovigo, possessed a map of the London Underground at one of their addresses. Police also found maps with Nato bases marked on them.

Inside the farmhouse police recovered 2.2 lbs of C4 plastic explosive, the same amount used in the Bali bomb. The leader of the group has been named as Reduane Bnoughazi, 32, known locally as “the preacher” and the leader of the local mosque.

The breakthrough that led to the Spanish raid came after recent operations in London and Manchester uncovered documents identifying Islamic terrorists operating in mainland Europe. British Intelligence tipped off the Spanish authorities about the cell of young Algerians operating from addresses near Barcelona. Some of the 16 people arrested in Spain yesterday are understood to have recently visited London. Spanish police are still analysing chemicals found at one address. One unconfirmed report in Madrid claimed they included ricin. Scotland Yard have not yet discovered what happened to the ricin manufactured in the flat in Wood Green where traces of the poison were found.

David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, said: “We have said all along that there was an international network, we have said that the security services need to work closely together to combat this.

“I am very pleased that in the catches in Italy and Spain that they have been able to get the arrests. We’ll learn from it very quickly and obviously, we will take whatever steps are necessary to protect ourselves in the UK.”

Señor Aznar praised British Intelligence for its help in identifying the cell in Catalonia which he said was “preparing for attacks with explosive and chemical material”.

He continued: “The police have broken up a major terrorist network linked to the Algerian Salafist group, which has clear connections with the criminal organisation of bin Laden. The network had connections with terrorists recently arrested in France and the United Kingdom”.

Angel Acebes, the Interior Minister, said that the 16 detainees were mostly Algerian citizens who maintained contact with groups in Chechnya and Algeria as well as Osama bin Laden. Many of them are believed to have received training in handling weapons, explosives and chemicals at camps run by al-Qaeda.

All 16 men have been taken to Madrid for questioning by Guillermo Ruiz Polanco, the judge who authorised yesterday’s operation. Sources close to the judge said these arrests were made at the request of authorities in Britain and France.

Scotland Yard has arrested 19 people this month, most of them Algerians, in raids in Wood Green, Finsbury Park Mosque and in Manchester, where DC Stephen Oake was murdered. Police believe they are holding the financier of the ricin gang and the chemist who produced the poison. They are also checking false passports found in the mosque and other addresses.

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