The weekend sting by Spain’s Guardia Civil in Barcelona and Badalona led to the arrest of three men and dismantled a network shipping drone parts to Hezbollah, according to investigators familiar with the case.
Of the three suspects facing terrorism charges, one, Feraz Arab, a Libyan national, sought to acquire components in the Catalan capital to modify the radio frequency system of civil drones. People close to the operation, which was first reported by another outlet, describe the seized items as capable of becoming weapons of war that could be directed at civilian and military targets in Israel and across Europe.
This group, which the Guardia Civil regards as Hezbollah’s logistical cadre, did not only obtain radio frequency devices. They also secured 200 electric battery motors, as well as gasoline engines and rotor blades. The investigation notes that the ring also amassed twelve tons of resins and fibers used to shape wings and fuselages for aircraft.
The Guardia Civil believes that the material purchased in Europe could enable Hezbollah to produce thousands of drones. Hezbollah, the Shiite insurgent group backed by Iran, is carrying out a campaign of rocket and drone exchanges with Israel, marking one of the most tense periods of the Middle East conflict. The group’s operatives are believed to be seeking systems across Europe and the Arab world that can shield radio signals for piloting unmanned aircraft that could be turned into flying bombs, with long-lasting batteries and motors to outfit improvised frames that might carry explosives.
Plans
[–>The detained Feraz Arab, held in custody by the National Court judge Santiago Pedraz, is the only one among the three who has been remanded. He possessed technical drone documentation and was in contact with suppliers in Catalonia and other parts of Spain for parts. The assembly blueprints under review by investigators originate from civil, but some also trace back to Iranian military sources.]
The other two detainees reportedly served as guides to locate suppliers in Spain, and a trip by Arab to Germany helped widen the probe to that country. German counterterrorism authorities have also detained a collaborator of the group.
In the Guardia Civil operation, which remains ongoing, officials emphasize that the Libanese suspect and his aides did not merely stockpile material for use in southern Lebanon. They also anticipated possible future actions against Israeli interests in Spain or elsewhere in Europe.
With this same network, the group planned to ship the acquired material to Beirut. As disclosed by the Guardia Civil, the operation began after the armed forces detected activity by a number of Lebanese-led companies in Spain engaged in purchasing unmanned aircraft components, a trend that had intensified.
These discoveries show a deliberate effort to equip a transnational operation with civil drone parts that could be repurposed for military use, highlighting the broader concerns about drone proliferation and the potential for dual-use technologies to threaten public safety and regional stability.