Morocco Offers Tip-off Leading to Arrest of IS member in Bulgaria

Moroccan Interpol offered crucial information that helped Bulgaria’s security forces arrest an IS member returning from the battlefield in Syria through Turkey, international media said.

The suspect, who is of Moroccan origin, was arrested in possession of belt explosives, hand grenades, firearms and ammunitions, the Haskovo court said in a statement adding that he “will be extradited to Morocco”.

The suspect had worked in the Department of Mechanical Engineering attached to the Directorate-General of Military Bearings in Mayadine in Syria’s Deir Ezzor region, a former stronghold of IS, the statement said.

He reached illegally Bulgaria after the fall of Deir Ezzor to the Syrian regime in October 2017, the statement added.

Moroccan intelligence services have helped thwart attacks and bust cells in Belgium, France, Spain and in several other countries.