(CBS) A terrorist recruiter known as “The Bear,” in Moroccan custody since early last week, is believed to have knowledge about al Qaeda operations members, U.S. officials said.

Morocco arrested Abu Zubair al-Haili, a Saudi who weighs more than 300 pounds, and U.S. officials are believed to have access to information he is providing. He is suspected of plotting attacks against Western interests in Morocco.

Before Sept. 11, he ran some of Osama bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan, and during the U.S.-led war against the Taliban and al Qaeda, he helped evacuate al Qaeda operatives, officials said.

Al-Haili was a close associate of Abu Zubaydah, the al Qaeda operations chief captured by the U.S. in Pakistan in March. Like Zubaydah, al-Haili was central to al Qaeda's recruiting network, accepting recruits into training and placing them in overseas cells, officials said. How he got to Morocco from Afghanistan is unclear.

His arrest is the latest in a series of breaks in the U.S. war on terrorism. On Monday, three alleged Saudi al Qaeda members were charged in connection with a plot to bomb U.S. and British warships crossing the Straits of Gibraltar between Morocco and Spain. Moroccan authorities said last week that the suspects planned to sail a dinghy loaded with explosives from Morocco into the strait.

Another al Qaeda senior lieutenant, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, is suspected of organizing the plot. Al-Nashiri, one of the alleged masterminds of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, remains at large, officials said. Al-Haili's arrest was separate from those linked to the Gibraltar plot.

The Moroccans previously arrested Mohammed Haydar Zammar, who allegedly recruited chief Sept. 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta into al Qaeda in Germany. Zammar, a German of Syrian descent, was sent to Syria, where he remains in custody, according to a German intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Zammar was in Hamburg, Germany, with Atta and other members of Atta's cell, including hijackers Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah. He also is believed to have introduced Atta to al Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan.

U.S. authorities appear to have some degree of access to Zammar, although it is unclear if it is through direct contact or an intermediary.

Germany has asked Syria for access to Zammar, officials said on Wednesday.

“We are pursuing the news that he is in a Syrian jail but do not have any confirmation,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Sparwasser said. “We have asked about it and are still asking.”

A U.S. official in Washington described Zammar's arrest as significant and called him a key figure in the al Qaeda organization. German officials are more reserved.

“There is still no arrest warrant from the German side,” said one top German official focusing on terrorism.

The weapons and explosives that detained al Qaeda suspects planned to use for terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia were smuggled in from neighboring Yemen, a Saudi-owned newspaper reported Wednesday.

The London-based Al-Hayat daily also said that one of the suspects, a Sudanese who is believed to be an al Qaeda cell leader, fled the kingdom through Iraq after firing an anti-aircraft missile at a U.S. warplane in Saudi Arabia in May. He apparently made his way to Sudan, which announced earlier this week he had been transferred from Sudan to Saudi Arabia for trial.

Weapons are sold freely in Yemen and several suspected al Qaeda members are believed to have found shelter in the area in the country along the border with Saudi Arabia. The border area is largely controlled by armed tribes. In October, Yemen and Saudi Arabia agreed to joint patrols of their common border.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher declined comment on the arrests Tuesday, except to say: “We've been very satisfied with Saudi cooperation in a wide variety of areas, whether its financial, law enforcement or other matters.”

Dozens of Saudis are among several hundred prisoners captured in Afghanistan and now in the hands of the U.S. military. Saudi sources say there are about 100 prisoners in the U.S. bases in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Separately, the Saudi Embassy in Washington issued a statement Tuesday saying that Saudi Arabia has asked Interpol to assist in the arrest of 750 people, including 214 Saudis, “many of which are suspected to be involved in money laundering, drug trafficking, and terrorist-related activities.”