Spanish police arrested 13 people Tuesday on suspicion of links to organized crime and terrorism groups.A police statement said the detainees -- 11 Pakistanis, a Nigerian and an Indian -- are suspected of belonging to an international crime gang involved in passport forgery, drug trafficking and people-smuggling.Police said they were investigating whether the group may also have supplied forged documents to international terror groups. Spanish police often use that term to refer to Islamic extremist organizations, but a police official refused to say if that applied this time.Earlier, news reports citing police sources said 15 people had been arrested on suspicion of forging passports for use by al-Qaida members. Police in Madrid said they could not comment on that.Eleven of the arrests took place in Barcelona and two in the eastern city of Valencia. Police agents wore masks to conceal their identities.The statement said the group is suspected of having contacts in Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland and Thailand.The group allegedly stole passports in Spain and forwarded them to Thailand, where they were altered before being sent back to crime gangs in Europe.In the operation, police seized numerous false and blank passports and material used for forging documents.Dozens of suspected radical Islamic militants have been arrested in Spain since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington, and again after the commuter train bombings in 2004 in Madrid.On Jan. 20, six Pakistanis were arrested in Barcelona on suspicion of tax fraud and diverting funds to Islamic terror groups. They were released days later for lack of evidence.
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