MADRID, July 11: Spanish police said on Friday they had broken up a network suspected of smuggling spare parts for military aircraft to a country in the Middle East which Spanish media identified as Iran.

Six people were arrested in the crackdown on the network, which was involved in the “illegal trade of spare parts of military aeronautical equipment for fighter planes,” police said in a statement.

It said the equipment was sent to a Middle East country which it did not specify but which it said was “under sanctions” imposed by the UN Security Council.

Sources close to the investigation quoted by the Spanish news agency Europa Press said the equipment was sent to a company linked to the Iranian government, something police refused to confirm.—AFP