( Newsvine ) Spanish police and the FBI arrested two Pakistani nationals in a joint operation in Madrid and Barcelona on suspicion of being involved in financing international terrorism, the Interior Ministry said Thursday.
The men, identified as Anar Muhammad Shan and Preces Mehmood Sandhu, were also held on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist organization, a ministry statement said.
Police searched four addresses - two in Madrid, one in a Barcelona suburb and another in downtown Barcelona, the statement said. Among items seized were documents showing $74,360 had been transferred to radical Islamic sympathizers in Arab countries and $9,820 in cash, it said.
The investigation began in October 2005, the statement said.
Eleven Pakistanis were acquitted in May of plotting to blow up buildings in Barcelona, although five were found guilty of lesser charges.
The 11 were arrested in September 2004 and prosecutors maintained the defendants had been planning to attack high-rise buildings and a shopping center in Barcelona. The National Court acquitted them for lack of evidence, but convicted three of sending sent money to Muslim extremists and two of forging documents.