A TERROR suspect who was caught returning from Syria had been sent to Spain by the ringleader of the Paris attacks, police reveal.
Abdeljail Aït El-Kaïd (pictured), a Moroccan living in the Alicante area, left the country in 2014 to join the DAESH, or so-called Islamic State in Raqqa, Syria, the capital of the terrorist organisation's self-proclaimed caliphate, for combat training.
During his week-long stay in the Middle Eastern country, he met Abdelhamid Abaaoud, thought to have been the brains behind the multiple massacres in Paris and who has since been shot dead by police.
Abaaoud ordered Aït El-Kaïd's immediate return to Spain, and he was expected to be involved in the attacks in the French capital.
But the Alicante resident was arrested in Warsaw, Poland en route back from Syria via Serbia, thanks to the Spanish Guardia Civil having tipped off Polish authorities.
This was in June 2014, and Aït El-Kaïd has been in prison in Spain ever since.
Spanish authorities are digging into his affairs for more information, since they are certain he did not return from Syria alone.
The accused was travelling with another Moroccan terrorist, Reda Hame, who had also been ordered by Abaaoud to return to Europe.
Hame had been instructed to carry out an attack in a Paris concert hall, which may have been the Bataclan in the 10th arrondissement, but was arrested before he was even able to acquire the weapons he needed to do so.
It was Aït El-Kaïd who confessed to Spanish police that he and his companion, whom he named, had been returning to Europe on Abaaoud's orders, and revealed Hame's intentions and the fact he was on his way to France.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com