Investigators are conducting DNA tests to establish whether he is one of the two who died after the explosion of the cells hideout in Alcanar on Thursday morning, like reported by neweurope.eu.
An explosion of a butane gas bottle at the Alcanar hideout urged the cell to downscale the attack and push it forwards to Thursday evening before the police had the chance to react. More than 120 butane canisters were found in Alcanar.
The Imam’s landlord says that he had left the town of Ripoll two days before the attack. The police investigation in his apartment revealed documents bearing French names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses.
Radicalization in Ripoll
The Imam is believed to be the mastermind behind the cell and responsible for the members’ recruitment and radicalization. In this sense, his role would be akin to Khalid’s Zerkani, also known as the Emir of Molenbeek.
Es Satty has been jailed for smuggling cannabis in 2010 and was released in 2014. According to the Guardian, he had met in prison with the 2004 Madrid bomber Rachid Aglif, responsible for the death of 191 people. He is also implicated in a recruitment ring, which was sending fighters in Syria and Iraq. Finally, he was also known o frequently travel to Belgium and was seen there in the months before the Brussels attacks.
All the 11 members of the terrorist cell were from the city of Ripoll, in the Pyrenees, a town with a 500-strong Muslim population or 5% of the total. Before becoming the Barcelona cell, the 11-second generation migrants from Ripoll were a group of friends. Most grew up in Ripoll although they were born in Morocco.
Unlike the kids from Molenbeek, the Barcelona cell did not have a petty criminal background. They played in an indoor soccer team and often attended the Punt Òmnia center for people at risk of social exclusion. There, they did their homework and got help from tutors. Most of them had a good school and work records, El Pais reports.
They also attended Es Satty’s mosque.
Es Satty moved to Ripoll in 2015 to run one of the town’s two mosques. According to El Pais, there are direct links between the Imam and the Salafist movement that provides theoretical justification for the use of violence. Most family members of the teenagers believed their children were brainwashed.