The leader of the Jihadi terrorist group which on August 17th, 2017 attacked Barcelona's Rambla, Abdelbaki Es Satty, was an informer for the Spanish secret service, the CNI, right up until the attacks in which 15 people were murdered.
According to exclusive information published by the Spanish digital newspaper Público.es, Spain's CNI knew that a terrorist group based in the Catalan town of Ripoll was preparing an attack. The newspaper has had access to information that confirms this relationship between the Spanish intelligence agency and the attack mastermind, as well as showing that the CNI spies were monitoring the group's movements to and from the location of their bomb factory.
The intelligence agency communicated with Satty, the imam of Ripoll, through a hard-to-detect communication system known as "dead mail drops", which consists of writing draft emails without sending them. The two people who want to communicate enter the same mailbox and add to their drafts, but since they never hit 'send', the data does not circulate on the internet. As Público.es notes, this system was invented by Bin Laden.
Screenshot of two draft emails in the so-called "dead mail" box. Source: Público.es
The newspaper has obtained screenshots from the gmail account that was used for communications between the imam and the CNI: adamperez27177@gmail.com. The new revelations are the result of a year of investigation during which the newspaper has opened up intelligence sources, gathered confidential documents and extracted data from the investigations into the attacks.
The email address adamperez27177@gmail.com was active until at least two months before the 2017 terror attack. The last message left in the dead mail was from June 19th, 2017, when the bombs used for the attack were already being manufactured. The passwords to access this email address were found in the remains of the group's bomb factory in the town of Alcanar, whose accidental explosion on August 16th, 2017 killed Satty and one other terror group member. As a result of the explosion, the cell moved quickly and the next day improvised the horrific Rambla van attack and a second deadly attack in the town of Cambrils, instead of the high-powered bomb explosion they had been working towards, possibly aimed at Barcelona's Sagrada Família.
Confidential CNI reports that the newspaper has obtained demonstrate that the Ripoll terror cell was monitored by Spanish intelligence. These documents show that the Spanish agency listened to their conversations and followed their movements. The CNI was aware of the trips made by the members of the Jihadi group from Ripoll to Alcanar and knew about the existence of the villa where explosives were being manufactured.
Moreover, Público affirms that the Spanish secret services monitored the terrorists until the very day of the attacks and that Satty's name was erased from CNI files after the attacks.
Spanish authorities monitored terrorist movements
The intelligence reports that the newspaper has obtained on the attacks specify in detail the trips that the members of the terror cell made several months before the August 2017 attacks. The Spanish secret service document list separate journeys by terror group members to Switzerland and Germany, and to France and Belgium, all in December 2016. This second trip was made using the same Audi A-3 car that was later used in the Cambrils attack.
Spanish secret service report on the terrorists' trips around Europe in December 2016. Source: Público.es
The CNI, according to the newspaper, monitored the movements across four countries of the three young men who made the explosives in Alcanar, not only observing their itineraries, but also with advance knowledge of their plans, through listening to their conversations.