Spain: Police bust credit card scam, arrest 9/11 financier

Spanish police announced on Saturday that they had arrested 19 people in connection with a fake credit card ring.

One of the suspects was a 49-year-old Algerian who has already spent time in prison after being convicted of helping to fund the September 11 attacks.

All nineteen were arrested in Madrid on suspicion of running a scam selling cloned credit cards.

The Algerian financier, whose name has been withheld by US police, is thought to have been the ringleader.

Spain was the scene of a high-profile mass trial of 9/11 plotters in 2005 that led to the imprisonment of 18 individuals linked to al-Qaeda.

The northeastern Spanish city of Tarragona was also the scene of a top-level meeting of conspirators just months before the attacks. One of the attendees was pilot ringleader Mohammed Atta. It is believed this meeting was to finalize preparation for the atrocities.

es/rc (AFP, AP)

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