A KEY WITNESS of the March 11 plot, who was in hiding, has been found in the Caribbean and interviewed by a Spanish newspaper:

Jose Ignacio Fernandez Diaz, alias "El Nayo", a key witness in the March 11 bombings in Madrid, has been found by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo in the Caribbean. Fernandez Diaz is accused of conspiring with Suarez Trashorras and Antonio Toro, indicted as part of the terrorist plot. "El Nayo" is wanted by the Spanish justice system.

"El Nayo" revealed that Trashorras and Toro sold dynamite to ETA terrorists and accused a police officer of forming part of the criminal organization that sold explosives to the Islamist terrorists who committed the bombing, which killed 192 people.

Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso said yesterday at a press conference that he "had nothing to say" regarding this latest development, which comes directly after the declarations of Francisco Javier Lavandera on Wednesday. Lavandera, in a government witness protection program until just a few days ago, claimed that Toro and Trashorras had behaved "calmly, as if they were supported by powerful people."

"El Nayo's" statements have had an important political effect. The current Socialist (PSOE) administration has repeatedly denied any connection between ETA and the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks despite various pieces of evidence that have turned up in recent months.

Lavandera, the former police agent under witness protection program, said in another interview on a radio network the day before that the two Spanish guys from northwestern Spain charged with providing the explosives used in the March 11 bombings,

"behaved calmly as if they were supported by someone very powerful".Lavandera stated that he was certain that Toro and Trashorras had also supplied explosives to ETA on the COPE network's radio program "La Mañana". Lavandera informed the National Police about the two men's plans in 2001. Police actions in the Asturias region of northern Spain have been criticized, as the explosives used in the March 11 bombings were stolen from an Asturian mine and caused several resignations among members of the Guardia Civil. More controversy was caused by the appearance of a tape recorded by a police officer in which Lavandera accused Toro and Trashorras of having discussed for years a plan to steal explosives and traffic them in Morocco.

Murkier and murkier.