MADRID, Spain — Police acting on a tip-off that a radical Islamic group was plotting suicide attacks in Barcelona moved against the cell last week even though it had not amassed enough explosives to make bombs, Spain’s police chief said yesterday.

“They had the will but not the means,” National Police chief Joan Mesquida said a day after a judge in Madrid sent 10 suspects to jail pending further investigation. Judge Ismael Moreno said the cell had been planning suicide attacks last weekend on the public transport network in Barcelona, Spain’s second-largest city. The 10 suspects are nine Pakistanis and one Indian. They were among 14 men arrested Saturday; police freed two and the judge two more. “In the case of Barcelona, the existence of a suicide profile is what made us take steps immediately in the operation,” Mr. Mesquida told Spanish Television. “

The judge said that of the 10 people he is ordering kept in custody, three were planning to stage suicide attacks. Two others were described as operational chiefs. The others were jailed on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist group.