Spanish police have arrested a Pakistani man suspected of being part of a ring that forged passports for al Qaeda-linked groups, a police statement said on Friday. Police said they had hunted for the suspect since December 1 when they swooped on the gang and arrested seven people - six Pakistanis and a Nigerian - in Barcelona.
According to police, the detained man "participated with the people arrested in December in sending stolen passports to Thailand and collecting money to finance their activities." Those arrested in December were suspected of supplying false papers to Lashkar-e-Taiba. According to Spanish police, they also had links with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which fought a violent 37-year campaign for an independent Tamil homeland in northern and eastern Sri Lanka before being crushed by government forces in 2009.