The imam, who is said to be the mastermind of last August's terrorist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils, Catalonia, was an informant for the Spanish secret services, according to the Spanish newspaper El Pais.
The National Intelligence Center (CNI) has admitted that it had contacts with Ripol's imam, Abdelbaki Es Sati, while he was serving a prison sentence for drug trafficking in Castellόνn prison, from 2010 to 2014.
CNI did not specify how frequent these "contacts" were, nor exactly how many. According to the newspaper, Es Sati, the leader of the jihadist nuclei in Catalonia, was not unknown to the security authorities, since he had been in their sights almost since he arrived and settled in Spain in 2002.
Sources cited by El Pais point out that although his possible involvement in terrorist organizations had been investigated at the time, his name was not linked to any terrorist act, except for common criminal law offenses.
Es Sati was eventually arrested for drug trafficking in 2010 and while in custody was reportedly approached by the secret services to recruit him as an informant.
The imam was killed in an explosion inside a house in the city of Alcanar, just hours before the deadly terrorist attack in Barcelona on August 17.