Spanish police arrest man who sold arms to Paris terrorist attacker

Spanish police have arrested the man who is alleged to have supplied weapons to Amedy Coulibaly, the gunman who killed five people in an attack against a Jewish grocery store in Paris in January 2015.

The suspect, Antoine Denevi, was detained in Rincón de la Victoria, in the Andalusian province of Málaga.

There was a European arrest warrant against Denevi for arms trafficking and criminal association. Spanish High Court Judge Eloy Velasco had him remanded in custody on Wednesday.

Serbian nationals may have provided Denevi with access to weapons and ammunition

Denevi has pleaded not guilty and agreed to be extradited to France. Spanish prosecutors will green-light the transfer once they confirm that there are no pending criminal proceedings against the suspect in Spain.

The investigation into the Paris killings led to Málaga, where Denevi settled down in a bid to throw the police off the scent and take up his illegal activities again using fake ID. He is believed to have left France a few weeks after the supermarket attack.

Investigators believe that Denevi worked with Serbian nationals, who may have provided him with access to weapons and ammunition.

A search of his home yielded fake documents, another person’s valid European passport, and various computer-related items that the police are currently analyzing.

The man Denevi allegedly sold weapons to, Coulibaly, was gunned down by French security forces after he killed a local police officer and four of the hostages that he took inside Hyper Casher supermarket on January 9, 2015.

Spanish security forces found that the terrorist, who had ties to the Islamic State, had been in Spain days earlier, on January 2, to accompany his wife and three other relatives to the Madrid airport and see them onto a plane bound for Turkey.

English version by Susana Urra.