Marxist guerrilla chief arrested in Spanish raid

MADRID, June 9 (Reuters) The veteran leader of a Spanish communist guerrilla group, wanted for murder and attempted bank robbery, has been arrested in a night-time raid on a flat in the country's northeast, Spain's Civil Guard said today.

A Civil Guard statement said Juan Garcia Martin and two other top leaders of the First of October Anti-Fascist Resistance Groups, known by the Spanish initials GRAPO, were arrested in the town of Reus last night.

GRAPO was founded as the armed wing of the then illegal Spanish Communist Party in the final days of the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco in 1975.

At first, it assassinated police officers and staged kidnaps but it has no popular support and many of its members have been arrested in recent years. It is much smaller than Spain's biggest illegal armed group - the Basque separatist guerrillas of ETA, which declared a ceasefire in March.

Garcia is wanted for killing a woman and wounding her husband in February and for attempted armed bank robbery. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1978 but returned to GRAPO almost as soon as he was released, the Civil Guard said.

Agents found forged documents, three laptops and ''a considerable amount of money'' in the raid.

REUTERS SHR PM1743