Another ETA suspect captured in France

Jun 1, 2010, 8:47 GMT

Madrid - French and Spanish police Tuesday arrested a suspected member of the militant Basque separatist group ETA, who was believed to have collaborated with presumed ETA leaders held on May 20, Spanish police sources said.

Juan Carlos Iriarte was held in Hendaye in the French Basque region.

He was suspected of acting as an intermediary towards entrepreneurs from whom ETA tried to extort 'revolutionary taxes.'

Iriarte was also thought to have helped to find lodgings for ETA's suspected military leader Mikel Carrera Sarobe, his second-in-command and a third suspect in the southern French town of Bayonne, where they were detained on May 20.

About 20 people linked with ETA have been arrested in France so far this year. Thirty-one ETA suspects were detained in Spain, and three in Portugal, in the first five months of 2010.

ETA has killed more than 820 people since 1968 in its campaign for an independent Basque country carved out of northern Spain and southern France. The group has come under increasing police pressure, and its military capacity has dwindled.

ETA has carried out no significant attacks in Spain since August 2009. In March, a shoot-out erupted between French police and ETA suspects during a security check, killing a police officer near Paris.

ETA is listed as a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States.