Madrid bombings: 3 Moroccans held
From CNN Madrid Bureau Chief Al Goodman
MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Spanish police have arrested three more suspects in last year's Madrid train bombings, linking the trio to drug trafficking and arms dealing that allegedly supported the attacks, a police spokesman told CNN.
The latest suspects are three men born in Tanger, Morocco, including two brothers. Two of the suspects were arrested Monday in Madrid and the third was detained in the southern city of Granada, said police, who announced the arrests Tuesday. Police also searched seven homes and businesses.
A total of 101 suspects have been charged in the bombings -- many of them also Moroccan nationals -- and, while 25 of them remain in jail on the most serious charges, the others have provisional liberty.
Indictments are expected in the coming months and a trial could start by the end of the year, Spanish authorities have said.
Police said drug trafficking helped finance the attacks, which killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,500 in a series of coordinated bombings against four morning rush hour commuter trains in Madrid on March 11, 2004.
The first suspect, Mourad Bhar, 20, was arrested around midday on Monday in Madrid. He is suspected of belonging to a terrorist group, drug trafficking and storing weapons that may have been provided to other participants in the train attacks, a Ministry of Interior statement said.
Bhar shared an apartment with two other train bombing suspects in Madrid in the days just before and after the attacks, the statement said.
The second arrest, of Abdelkhalak Chergui, 29, also occurred Monday in Madrid. The Interior Ministry said he is suspected of belonging to a terrorist group, trafficking in weapons, explosives and drugs, and of document forgery.
Chergui is linked to five other suspects in the train bombings, including two of the suspected ringleaders, and may have provided weapons for the attacks, as well as false Belgian documents to one of them, the statement said.
Police searched his home and several businesses in Madrid owned by Chergui, including a telephone call center, a restaurant and a clothing store.
The third suspect, Abdelhak Chergui, 32 -- the brother of Abdelkhalak -- was arrested in Granada on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist group, and trafficking in weapons, explosives and drugs, according to the ministry.
Abdelhak is studying telecommunications technical engineering, which the police believe might have given him knowledge to program cell phones used in the attacks, the statement said. Investigators say the 10 bombs on four trains were activated by cell phones employed as timing devices.
Police also say that Abdelhak, like his brother Abdelkhalak, may have collaborated in the trafficking of weapons and drugs linked to the attacks.
Police in Granada searched his home and also a telephone call center that he owns.
