Italian anti-terror police have arrested Palestinian national Alaji Amin, claiming he had been plotting a chemical weapon attack on behalf of Islamic State.
The 38-year-old was arrested in the town of Macomer in Sardinia on Wednesday morning and is accused of plotting to attack the army barracks that house the members of the 32nd Alpine Engineer Regiment, Il Giornale reports.
Federico Cafiero De Raho, national anti-mafia and counter-terrorism prosecutor, said that Mr Amin had previously declared his loyalty to the terror group. He claimed the jihadist had planned to use a substance akin to anthrax or ricin to poison the water supply and that the date of the attack was unclear but would have likely fallen on an upcoming holiday.
“This is an arrest of great importance,” Cafiero De Raho added.
Salvini’s Italy Now Leads Europe in Number of Jihadi Deportations https://t.co/4cMklhG5PP
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) October 20, 2018
The arrest comes after Italian authorities were tipped off in September following an attempt to purchase extremely large quantities of the insecticide Methomyl by Amin. Investigators also uncovered information that Amin’s cousin, living in Lebanon, had also attempted to poison the water supply of soldiers of the Lebanese military.
The foiled plot is not the first chemical or biological attack prevented in Europe so far in 2018. Earlier this year in Cologne, Tunisian migrant Sief Allah H was arrested for plotting a terror attack involving the deadly biological weapon ricin.
The Tunisian, along with his wife who was also arrested, had made contact with Islamic State which gave him the plans to make a biological weapon.
The two Islamic State plots came after the UK government warned last year that the terror group had carried out successful chemical attacks in Syria and planned to do the same in the UK.
“The ambition of IS [Islamic State] or Daesh is definitely mass-casualty attacks. They want to harm as many people as possible and terrorise as many people as possible,” Ben Wallace, Minister of State for Security, said.
Tunisian Migrant Planned Biological Weapon Attack Against ‘Unbelievers’ in Germany https://t.co/IHao0ozIJo
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) August 4, 2018
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