Spanish police

The Spanish government claims that the leader of the Basque separatist organisation ETA Mikel Irastorza has been arrested in the southwest of France in a joint operation of the French intelligence Services and the Spanish police, reported Reuters.

Irastorza was hiding from authorities in the village of Ascain.

Around 220 African migrants forced their way through a fence between Morocco and the tiny Spanish enclave of Ceuta Oct. 31, clashing with police in an incident that injured 35, officials said.

Spanish police have confiscated 15 tons of hashish on a ship. This is the largest quantity of drugs discovered in the Mediterranean this year, reported the Interior Ministry.

Two persons on the ship - a Dutch man and a Bulgarian man - have been arrested in the operation which started on Saturday night.

Spanish police have seized fake and authentic Bulgarian passports during an operation against a criminal group that brought immigrants into the UK through airports in Spain's Canary Islands.

The group was involved in a network that helped Iranian and Albanian immigrants enter the UK illegally through Spain in order to apply for asylum, according to thelocal.es.

Spanish police arrested nine people on Jan. 27 accused of belonging to and collaborating with a criminal and terrorist organization due to connections with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the Spanish Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The immigration crisis in Greece has been the focus of global media attention since July, when swelling numbers of refugees from war-torn Syria and illegal immigrants from the wider Middle East region landed on Greek islands. However, other European countries in the Western Mediterranean are also coming under pressure.

Spanish police arrested on July 7 a woman on the Canary Islands suspected of recruiting girls and teenagers for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the interior ministry said.

Spanish police arrested nine people in the Catalonia region on Wednesday suspected of links to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, authorities said, the latest such raids as European nations seek to stop jihadist recruitment.

"Balkan group" of cocaine smugglers arrested in Spain

ZAGREB -- Croatia's Jutarnji List newspaper is reporting that "a Serb, a Croat, and a Montenegrin" have been arrested in Spain on drug trafficking charges.

Quoting Spanish media, the daily said they were caught while attempting to smuggle nearly 300 kilograms of cocaine.

Albanian officer killed in Spain while trafficking drugs

TIRANA -- Albanian Army Major Sokol Feka was the pilot of a helicopter that crashed yesterday in Spain while transporting narcotics from Morocco.

Feka served in the Albanian military for 18 years and was made major in 2009. He is described as "a pilot who enjoyed the highest degree of trust."