Spanish police say Germany has handed over a suspected recruiter for the Islamic State armed group who recently fled the country.

A police statement Thursday said Ayoub Moutchou, a Moroccan, was a key element in communications between the group's members in Iraq, Syria and Turkey and sympathizers in Europe, and had begun making contacts aimed at carrying out attacks in Spain.

Police said he left Spain following the July 7arrest of a Spanish woman suspected of trying to recruit pre-teen girls and teenagers to send to the group.

The Interior Ministry said recently that Moutchou had also expressed his intention of going to Syria and had urged others to go with him.

He was arrested by German police Aug. 4 at a residence for asylum seekers just outside Stuttgart.