The French Interior Minister
Michele Alliot-Marie announced that he had been arrested overnight on 16 November 2008, at 3:30, in
Cauterets following a joint investigation by French and Spanish police. He was arrested along with Leire López Zurutuza, a woman suspected of being an ETA member, by the French anti-terrorism police. His arrest was the result of police investigative work following the arrest of two other ETA suspects who said he told them that he had killed the two officers in Capbreton on 1 December 2007. He appeared before a Paris judge where he was formally charged in connection with the killing of the two undercover Spanish police officers. Following his arrest, he was also indicted in a Spanish court for his alleged role in the Barajas bombing.
Political impact Sections of the media asked whether his arrest could debilitate ETA's violent activity. Alternatively, the arrest could have also led to an increase in ETA activity. Some saw it merely as the biggest blow to ETA in the last half-year since Lopez Peña's arrest. ==International reactions==