The military boss of ETA, Mikel Garikoitz Aspiazu, alias “Txeroki”, has been arrested this morning in Cauterets, in the southwest of France.
Cauterets is a town in the High Pyrenees, 32 kilometres from Lourdes. The locality is a well known tourist resort for skiers.
The police operation was the result of a joint investigation by the French information services in collaboration with the Guardia Civil. Agents of a special assault unit entered the house where “Txeroki” and his companion were located shortly after three in the morning. Both“Txeroki” and his female companion were armed at the time. However, the rapid intervention by the the elite French forces prevented the pair from using their arms to counter the arrest.
For five years , Garikoitz Aspiazu, “Txeroki”, was the head of the ETA commandos and was responsible for organising and issuing orders to the terrorist cells. It was “Txeroki” who ordered the car bomb in the car park at Barajas airport on the 30th of December 2006, that killed two people and broke the truce between ETA and the government.
Members of an ETA command in Pamplona, arrested by the police on the 28th of October, said that “Txeroki” had also confessed his involvement in the murder of two Civil Guards in Capbreton (France) on the 1st of December last year.
Shortly after the arrests, the French minister of the Interior, Michèle Alliot-Marie, offered his warmest congratulations to officers involved. The operation demonstrates the determination of the police services and the French gendarmerie in the fight against all form of terrorism and illustrates the excellent collaboration between France and Spain in the fight against Basque terrorism.
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