Fourteen people have been killed in recent attacks in Barcelona
The FBI arrested the American citizen, Mohamed Elshinaway, who pleaded guilty to terrorism charges last week.
A van ploughed into a crowd of pedestrians on a busy avenue in Barcelona on August 17, leaving 13 dead and over 130 injured.
Just eight hours later, attackers struck again at the seaside resort of Cambrils, where a car rammed into pedestrians, injuring six civilians and a police officer. One of the civilians later died.
Citing FBI documents, The Sunday Times reported that surveillance technology dispatched to Spain is believed to be linked to the development by the terror group of weaponised drones routed through the UK.
One of the firms – which shipped surveillance equipment to Madrid – appears to have been set up using the identity of a bogus director and shareholder called “Peter Soren”.
The name is believed to be an alias for Siful Sujan, a Bangladesh-origin IT expert and businessman behind the companies.
Sujan left south Wales three years ago with his family to join ISIS in Syria. He was later killed by a US drone strike.
Sujan and his associates set up the Ibacs network of companies to offer website and printing services to restaurants and takeaways. They operated out of an office in Cardiff.
The FBI and British anti-terrorist police in an investigation discovered that one of the Cardiff-based firms, Ibacstel Electronics, was used to send a total of $7,700 in 2015 to an ISIS supporter in the US.
A company named Advance Technology Global (ATG) was created and registered at the Alexandra Gate business address in July 2015, the FBI claims.
FBI obtained the transcripts of a Skype conversation between Sujan and another Ibacs director in Cardiff. The conversation revealed that Sujan was the real brains behind ATG.
Ibacstel Electronics was dissolved in March 2016 and ATG was wound up eight months ago.
Other Ibacs-linked firms continue to operate out of a new office in Newport but there is no suggestion that they are involved in any wrongdoing.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
