Civil Guard uncovers largest-ever ETA cache of explosives in Spain

A Civil Guard raid in the Guipúzcoa village of Legorreta on Tuesday reaped the detentions of suspected ETA members Igor and Aitor Esnaola and the largest cache of explosives and bomb-making materiel yet uncovered in Spain in the fight against the terrorist organization.

The Esnaola brothers, who stood as candidates in regional elections for the Euskal Herritarrok party in 1999, are suspected of forming part of the logistics apparatus of the Erreka cell of the organization, which has been active for some time and featured in documentation seized when former ETA military commander Ibon Fernández Iradi was arrested in France in 2002.

Security forces seized 850 kilos of ammonium nitrate, an agricultural fertilizer ETA habitually employs to make explosives, 14 liters of penthrite, used to increase the potency of bombs, three detonators, large quantities of fuel, bomb-manufacturing material and documents relating to the organization, anti-terror sources said.

The arrests came three days after two of ETA's most-wanted terrorists, Oier Gómez Mielgo and Itziar Moreno, were detained in France following a shootout with police in which one officer was wounded. The total number of ETA arrests since the announcement of a ceasefire on January 10 stands at 40.

The Basque abertzale left condemned the shooting in France, ahead of its attempts to run in elections in the Basque Country in May under the new "Bildu" platform. However, the arrest of the Esnaola brothers led the abertzale to condemn "the harshness of the poisonous political agenda that Madrid wishes to impose."

Accusing the government of attempting to derail the current peace process, the latest apparition of the outlawed Batasuna party called on the administration to "leave aside all repressive actions and adhere to exclusively political and democratic paths, as the ongoing political situation in the Basque Country requires."