PUBLISHED ONSeptember 22, 2015 1:24 PM
BAYONNE, France - Two political leaders of the Basque separatist group ETA were arrested in southwestern France on Tuesday, local police and the Spanish interior minister said.
The arrests of ETA members David Pla and Iratxe Sorzabal "completes the decapitation of ETA", minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz told reporters as he arrived for a meeting in Brussels.
He described the pair as Spain's "currently two most wanted terrorists."
A French police official told AFP said Sorzabal had been wanted for "at least 10 years" while Pla had been on the run since 2011.
Two lower-level members of the ETA were also arrested.
The police source said the four were arrested at Saint-Etienne-de-Baigorry, on the French side of the Basque region which straddles the French and Spanish border.
False documents and weapons were also found in the operation, which targeted the home of someone who had been providing accommodation for the four.
In a statement, the Spanish interior ministry said the operation was carried out jointly by French and Spanish police and the French domestic security agency, the DGSI.