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Madrd: Spanish and French police arrested one of the highest-ranking members of the armed Basque group ETA in southern France, a Spanish police spokesman said on Wednesday.
Javier Lopez Pena, also known as "Thierry," was detained in the southern coastal city of Bordeaux late Tuesday along with three other alleged ETA members, a police spokesman
said, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with police regulations.
The other three arrested were identified as Ainhoa Ozaeta Mendiondo, Igor Suberbiola and Jon Salaberria.
Spanish news reports said Lopez Pena was the outlawed group's No. 1 member, but the police spokesman said he could not confirm that.
The arrests were made in a joint operation by French and Spanish police.
The office of French Prime Minister Francois Fillon confirmed the arrests in a statement, calling Lopez Pena "one of the historic leaders" of ETA and saying he had been wanted by police for 20 years.
"The success of this operation illustrates again the remarkable quality of the anti-terrorist cooperation between France and Spain," the statement said.
The arrests were carried out peacefully, though several guns were found in the suspects' possession, French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said in a statement.
The apartment where the suspects were seized was blocked off by French and Spanish police Wednesday morning. It is located on a busy boulevard in a working class district of the city.
The Spanish police spokesman said Lopez Pena was one of the main people behind the ending of ETA's cease-fire last year.
The group was blamed for killing a policeman in a massive car bombing last week in a Basque village. It claimed another car bombing Sunday near Bilbao - the latest in more than 20 attacks by ETA since it ended the cease-fire in December 2006 after peace talks failed.
ETA is blamed for killing more than 825 people since the late 1960s in its campaign for an independent Basque state in territory straddling northern Spain and southern France.
It is considered a terrorist group by Spain, the European Union and the United States.
Many of its members live in French Basque areas.
The latest attacks were interpreted as insistence by ETA that it remains a force to be reckoned with and will not be ignored as politicians discuss how to end the region's decades-old conflict.
Since the ending of the cease-fire Spanish and French police have arrested dozens of alleged members of the organization.
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