Nevo Saraiva, 28, who moved to the UK more than 10 years ago, is suspected of being a deputy to the infamous Daesh member known as Jihadi John, who has appeared in the terror group’s gruesome beheading videos of foreign hostages.
Western security services say Saraiva and at least four other Portuguese immigrants to Britain were involved in the production and distribution of the terror group’s execution videos, London’s Sunday Times newspaper reported.
The report Sunday named one of the other suspects as Fabio Pocas, 22, a former soccer player who arrived in London in 2012 to further his career.
In an interview with Portuguese media, Pocas said he was a “military trainer” and had three wives in Syria, including a Dutch teenage jihadi bride.
Saraiva, too, is believed to have a number of jihadi wives, including an Australian woman, with whom he has at least four children.
Scotland Yard suspects Saraiva had advance information about Daesh hostages and the group’s plans to execute at least one of the American journalists it was holding captive, according to the report.
That assessment is based on a number of online activities picked up by security services. According to the report, 39 days before James Foley was murdered, Saraiva tweeted: “Message to America, [Daesh] is making a new movie. Thank u for the actors.”
In August, Daesh released a video of the killing under the heading “Message to America.” It was the first in a string of gruesome videos showing the beheadings of Western hostages.
The tweet was preceded by a talkback Saraiva wrote under his real name on an article in the Guardian, reading, “America [h]as run out of options. Anyway, [Daesh] will sort them out, don’t worry.”
A security source told the paper: “He has an important position, influential inside the organization, and is not just a foot soldier who went to fight and die in Syria.”
Security services believe he is linked to Jihadi John due to the similar weaponry they carried, photos of which were available on Saraiva’s Twitter profile.
Saraiva was believed to have left for Syria in 2012, moving up the ranks of the terror group to become a senior member. He converted to Islam from Catholicism in the UK, and is suspected of having recruited at least 10 British nationals for Daesh, sending them to Syria via safe houses in Lisbon, according to Portuguese media.
The Sunday Times and Expresso, a Lisbon-based newspaper, reported that the UK’s Scotland Yard had contacted one of Saraiva’s brothers who lives in Portugal about his jihadist activists.
Pocas, the soccer player, has for his part vowed to return to Europe to wage jihad.
He told the Portuguese paper Sabado in an interview that he would come back “with the flag of tawheed [the black banner associated with Islamists] in one hand and my weapon in the other”.
“Killing is easy,” he said . “And it’s even easier to kill those who kill Muslims… I’m capable of killing anyone who fights against Islam.”
Pocas said his parents “obviously don’t understand” his actions.
