Brazil arrests 10 suspected ISIS members ‘planning Olympic terrorist attacks’
Brazilian Security Team ahead of 2016 Rio Olympic Games |
The police operation, codenamed 'Hashtag,' took place across nine states, with suspects arrested in Sao Paulo and Parana. Justice Minister Alexandre Moraes told a news conference on Thursday that all the detainees were Brazilian nationals.
Judicial authorities in the state of Parana claimed that intercepted data and telephone calls revealed that a terrorist cell was planning to use “weapons and guerrilla tactics” to achieve its aims. It says that 12 warrants have been issued for an initial 30 days, which could be extended if charges are substantiated.
Moraes said that the men were new converts to Islam, who initially researched jihadism on the internet, and came into contact by simply exchanging pro-jihadist messages on the chat platforms WhatsApp and Telegram, according to leading Brazilian media outlet O Globo.
In their exchanges the men celebrated recent attacks on an Orlando night club and on a Bastille Day crowd in Nice. Recently, they “swore an oath to Islamic State” and moved to “preparatory acts” for a local attack, prompting police action. According to Moraes, one of the men attempted to buy a Kalashnikov rifle from a website in Paraguay.
"It was an absolutely amateur cell, with no preparation at all, a disorganized cell," said Moraes, stating that the suspects did not manage to arrange two-way contact with Islamic State. He said the detainees had been on a list of 50 terror suspects identified by the government earlier.
Over the past weekend, SITE Intelligence Group reported that a group calling itself 'Ansar al-Khilafah Brasil' – 'Soldiers of the Caliphate Brazil' – pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Islamic State. SITE also says that a channel on Telegram has been posting Portuguese-language translations of IS terrorist manuals, and has also issued a call for recruits, saying "Lone wolf from anywhere in the world can move to Brazil now." It is unclear if the messages were sent from Brazil or elsewhere, and what, if any, connection, they have to the arrested men.
Source: rt.com
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