Spanish and French authorities arrested one of the highest-ranking members of the armed Basque group ETA, a Spanish police spokesman said today.
Javier Lopez Pena was detained in the southern France 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 arrests were made in a joint operation by French and Spanish police. French authorities were not immediately available for comment.
French police escort Francisco Javier Lopez Pena following his arrest in Bordeaux yesterday
The official said Lopez Pena played a key role in the ETA's decision to end a 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.
Spanish news reports said Lopez Pena was the outlawed group's No. 1 member, but the police spokesman said he could not confirm that.
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 organisation