AN ENDURING THREAT: EUROPE’S ISLAMIST TERROR NETWORKS THEN AND NOW 1265 offender” who associated with a “loosely organised” gang of youths in Brussels, which included Salah 1266 and Brahim. As early as 2006, Abaaoud was convicted for concealing stolen goods, and three years later 1267 for violence and resisting police officers. In 2011 he was convicted of illegal entry, and later sentenced 1268 for theft with violence and assault in 2012. Mohammed Abrini, meanwhile, who was involved with both the Paris and Brussels attacks, was another of Salah’s childhood friends who had been jailed for crimes 1269 including theft and drug possession. Abaaoud’s cousin, Hasna Aitboulahcen, who sheltered him while he was hiding from the authorities, was also under surveillance in relation to a narcotics operation at the 1270 time of the police raid in which she was killed alongside Abaaoud. As well as within this network of friends and relatives, a history of criminality also features in the biographies of a number of the attackers and accomplices. Paris attacker, Omar Ismail Mostefai, was 1271 known as a “delinquent” who, though never jailed, had been arrested eight times between 2004 and 1272 2010. Mostefai’s fellow Bataclan gunman, Foued Mohammed Aggad, was allegedly known to police as 1273 a petty criminal before he fled Strasbourg to travel to Syria. Mohammed Belkaid, one of the 1274 accomplices in the Paris attacks, was known to the authorities following a 2014 theft; while Mohammed Bakkali, arrested on 26 November 2015 in connection with the Paris attacks, is also alleged to have had 1275 a history of petty crime. Brussels attacks accomplice, Osama Krayem, has also been alleged to have been involved in petty crime and drug use in Sweden, though it is unclear if he was ever convicted of any 1276 offences. In addition to these Europe-based individuals, the IS theatre commander connected to the Paris attacks, Salim Benghalem, also has a history of criminality and was convicted of gang-related 1277 attempted murder in 2007 over an offence committed several years before. Further examples of individuals connected to these networks having a history of petty crime can also be found outside of the two major plots, with Abaaoud’s associates in the Verviers cell reportedly having a 1278 history of theft and robbery. Mehdi Nemmouche, the alleged Brussels Jewish Museum gunman, had 1279 1280 previously been imprisoned for robbery, while Ayoub el-Khazzani had a history of drugs trafficking and Nicholas Moreau had been involved with petty crime in Nantes before leaving to fight in Syria.1281 Meanwhile, a number of those connected to the Zerkani network which Abaaoud and Laachraoui were part of had similar histories. Yoni Mayne allegedly had a history of petty crime,1282 Reda Kriket had 1283 “multiple convictions for robbery, possession of stolen goods and acts of violence”, and Abderramane ! ! 1265 ‘Islamic State creates a new type of jihadist: Part terrorist, part gangster’, Washington Post, 20 December 2015. 1266 Van Vlierden, G., ‘Profile: Paris Attack Ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud’, Combating Terrorism Center, 15 December 2015. 1267 ibid. 1268 ibid. 1269 ‘Brussels suspect: Check-in area for Tel Aviv flight was targeted’, The Times of Israel, 14 April 2016. 1270 ‘Is Europe still at threat from Paris-Brussels terror ‘supercell’?’ France 24, 12 April 2016. 1271 Newton-Small, J., ‘Paris Attacker Is an Example of France’s Homegrown Terrorists’, Time, 15 November 2015. 1272 ‘Profile: Omar Ismail Mostefai’, BBC News, 15 November 2015; Austin, H., ‘Paris attacks: Gunman Omar Ismail Mostefai a petty criminal with a record of radicalisation’, International Business Times, 15 November 2015, available at: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/paris-attacks-gunman-omar-ismail-mostefai-petty-criminal- record-radicalisation-1528821, last visited: 9 August 2016. 1273 ‘Who was third Bataclan attacker Foued Mohamed-Aggad?’, BBC News, 9 December 2015. 1274 Chrisafis, A., ‘Two suspects still on run after Brussels anti-terror raid that killed one’, Guardian, 16 March 2016. 1275 Cruickshank, P., ‘Paris attacks: Directives came from operatives in Brussels, investigators say’, CNN, 7 January 2016. 1276 Watkinson, W., ‘Brussels attack: Who is Osama Krayem the jihadi from Malmo arrested with 'Man in the Hat'?’, International Business Times, 10 April 2016. 1277 ‘French IS group recruiter sentenced to 15 years in absentia’, France 24, 7 January 2015; and ‘Paris attacks: Was Salim Benghalem the real ringleader?’, BBC News, 23 January 2015. 1278 Dalton, M., ‘Two Killed in Belgian Terror Raid Linked to Militants in Syria’, The Wall Street Journal, 3 February 2015. 1279 ‘France arrests Syria jihad suspects as Nemmouche held’, BBC News, 1 June 2014. 1280 ‘France train shooting: Attack 'was well prepared'’, BBC News, 26 August 2015. 1281 ‘IS in Europe: The race to the death’, BBC News, 23 March 2016. 1282 Faiola, A. and Souad Mekhennet, ‘The Islamic State creates a new type of jihadist: Part terrorist, part gangster’, The Washington Post, 20 December 2015. 1283 Breeden, A., ‘Investigators Pursue Leads on Frenchman Accused of Terror Plot’, The New York Times, 31 March 2016. ! ! 99 !