Summary:
A suspected Pakistani man has been arrested in Spain for allegedly supplying passports to al Qaeda, Spanish police say.

Full article:
Madrid, Spain (CNN) -- A Pakistani man was arrested in Barcelona for links to a group that allegedly supplied forged passports to terrorists close to al Qaeda, Spanish police said Friday. Suspect, Malik Imtanan Sarwar, 30, was arrested Thursday. He was missing when police arrested 10 suspects in December -- seven in Barcelona and three in Thailand. The man was part of an alleged ring that stole passports in Spain and sent them to Thailand, police said. The passports were forged in Thailand and supplied to groups linked to al Qaeda, the police statement said.. Sarwar was an active part of the group, both in sending stolen documents to Thailand and in securing funds for the group, the statement said. The alleged leader of the group was a Pakistani man based in Thailand. He allegedly gave orders to other suspects in Europe about the type of passports to be stolen -- including the nationality and age of the passport holder -- so they could be sent to Thailand, forged and later used by terrorists to cross borders more easily in Europe and the West, the statement said. "This operation has neutralized an important cell that provided passports to al Qaeda, so that the forgery apparatus of this organization is weakened internationally, and also its operational capability," the statement said.