of 23-F a year earlier were concluding and this further raised tensions. The Basque terror group, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, were very active and police checkpoints were common. The upcoming 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain meant the police were very alert to any suspicious or terrorist activity. The police requested that everybody remain vigilant, and that people should report anything unusual, especially within the travel industry. Execution Infiltration The commandos were issued counterfeit Argentine passports under false names and marked with false earlier entry stamps to Spain. This was done so the Argentine government could deny any involvement in case the commandos were discovered, and the passports were made by another former Montonero, Víctor Basterra. On 24 April, Nicoletti and Latorre left Buenos Aires for Paris where Latorre's passport raised the suspicions of French authorities, but they were allowed to continue their onward travel by air to Málaga. They carried the closed-circuit, military scuba gear in their luggage and passed through Spanish customs control without raising suspicion. They carried a substantial amount of US dollars and paid for everything in cash. They both checked into a hotel in Estepona and spent some days reconnoitring the area, after which they travelled to Madrid in a rented car to meet Rosales and Marciano. They then rented another two cars whilst in Madrid and went to the office of the Argentine Naval attaché to pick up the mines. While in Spain, the commando communicated daily by telephone with the Naval Attaché of the Argentine embassy in Madrid, who in turn would relay everything back to his superiors in Buenos Aires. The four-man commando group, travelling in three cars, moved southwards along the main roads. The mines were carried in a bag in the boot of a car, despite their telltale shape and appearance. While plausible cover stories could be invented for the specialised military scuba gear, there was no way to explain the explosives, and the team was careful to avoid the Spanish police on the roads. The operatives travelled to the south of Spain separately; Nicoletti went ahead as a scout, the other two cars ten minutes apart. They had no way to communicate between cars except visually. Nicoletti encountered a police checkpoint and turned around to warn his accomplices, but even though he signalled them, the first car behind him did not see him and continued until the checkpoint and turned