Terror suspect arrested
The 32-year-old is said to have planned an Islamist attack
01/08/2023 02:09 am
In Castrop-Rauxel, the police arrested a 32-year-old Iranian. The man is accused of planning a terrorist attack. For this purpose he is said to have already procured toxins.
Anti-terror investigators arrested a 32-year-old in Castrop-Rauxel in the northern Ruhr area who is said to have prepared an Islamist attack. The Iranian national is suspected of having obtained the toxins cyanide and ricin for the crime, said the Düsseldorf public prosecutor, the Recklinghausen police and the Münster police.
It was initially unclear how far the attack plans had progressed and whether there was already a concrete target. According to the Robert Koch Institute, the highly toxic ricin is listed under “biological weapons” in the war weapons list. Cyanide is also highly toxic, even the smallest amounts are fatal to humans.
The investigators struck around midnight. The investigators said the living quarters of the 32-year-old in Castrop-Rauxel were searched by order of the judge. The scene was cordoned off over a wide area. Police, fire brigade and rescue workers were on site with a large contingent. Many emergency services wore protective suits. Evidence was taken in blue barrels to a decontamination site set up by the fire department.
Suspicion of an “act of violence endangering the state”
“The accused is suspected of having prepared a serious act of violence that is dangerous to the state,” said the investigators. “The search serves to find corresponding toxins and other evidence.” The 32-year-old and one other person were taken into custody. The men were led across the street into an emergency vehicle in their underpants and jackets that had only been thrown on in a makeshift manner, eyewitnesses reported. Neither of them resisted. The second man is said to be the brother of the 32-year-old, who was also in the apartment.
“Evidence was secured and is being evaluated,” the investigating authorities wrote. It has not yet been decided whether the 32-year-old will be brought before a magistrate. The procedure is being conducted by the North Rhine-Westphalia Central Office for the Prosecution of Terrorism at the Düsseldorf Public Prosecutor’s Office. According to information from the “Bild” newspaper, the Federal Criminal Police Office has been investigating the Iranian for several days. A “friend of the secret service” is said to have warned the German security authorities regarding the danger of a chemical bomb attack.
Four years ago, investigations in Cologne showed just how dangerous ricin is: in a 15-story building in the high-rise district of Chorweiler, a Tunisian and his German wife produced the chemical and set off test explosions. A foreign secret service became suspicious regarding online purchases of large quantities of castor seeds and gave a tip. Both were sentenced to long prison terms. An expert report showed that, purely arithmetically, 13,500 people might have died from the amount of poison. With the planned spread by a cluster bomb spiked with steel balls, it would have killed around 200 people.