Castrop-Rauxel.
SEK mission in Castrop-Rauxel: A 32-year-old Iranian is said to have planned an Islamist attack. What is known about the case so far.
- A 32-year-old man is with one anti-terror operation in Castrop-Rauxel been arrested. Arrest warrants have been issued for him and his brother.
- He should get the Toxins cyanide and ricin for one Islamist-motivated attack have procured
- At least when the apartment was searched, however no toxins found
Anti-terrorist investigators arrested an Iranian national in the Ruhr area who is said to have prepared an Islamist attack. The situation at a glance.
What is known about the deployment?
The investigators searched the 32-year-old’s apartment in Castrop-Rauxel on Sunday night. The man is suspected of having obtained the toxins cyanide and ricin for an act, said the Düsseldorf public prosecutor, the Recklinghausen police and the Münster police on Sunday night. The 32-year-old was reportedly taken into custody along with another man. Because of the biological and chemical dangers for the emergency services, employees of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) were also on site as consultants. Several employees of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and a defuse commando were also deployed. On Sunday evening, an arrest warrant was issued against the 32-year-old and his brother (25), the dpa news agency learned from investigators.
+++ Also read: Anti-terrorist operation in Castrop-Rauxel: No poison found so far +++
What did the search find?
During the search, investigators found storage media in the suspect’s apartment. These must now be evaluated, said a spokesman for the Düsseldorf public prosecutor’s office. The investigators did not find any toxins that the 32-year-old is said to have procured for an attack.
How specific were the plans?
It was initially unclear how far the attack plans had progressed and whether there was already a concrete target. “We had a serious tip that prompted the police to intervene that night. The authorities are now investigating at high pressure,” said North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU).
According to information from Bild.de the FBI gave the German security authorities the decisive clue: the planning was already very advanced. Accordingly, the arrested allegedly wanted to commit an attack on New Year’s Eve and poison people. There was a tip from a US security agency, a spokesman for the Düsseldorf public prosecutor confirmed on Sunday. The information about the 32-year-old was received on Saturday and it was concluded that a search warrant had to be obtained and executed immediately, the spokesman said.
What do we know about the arrested person?
The arrested alleged Islamist is said not to have acted on behalf of Iranian state authorities. This became known on Sunday from security circles. Rather, it is suspected that he is a supporter of a Sunni Islamist terrorist group. His 25-year-old brother, who happened to be in the 32-year-old’s apartment in Castrop-Rauxel when the police took hold of him, was known to the police beforehand, but for reasons unrelated to Islamist terrorism. It is not yet clear whether he was privy to the alleged attack plans. The men are said to have both been in Germany since 2015.
How do experts assess the situation?
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) does not see the danger of Islamist attacks in Germany averted against the background of the operation. According to a statement from her ministry, Germany is still in the immediate target range of Islamist terrorist organizations. Islamist-motivated individual perpetrators are another significant danger. “Our security authorities therefore expect preparations for an attack at any time.” Since the year 2000, the authorities in Germany have prevented 21 Islamist attacks.
The terrorism expert Peter Neumann said on the sidelines of the CSU state group retreat: “This threat is less than six or seven years ago, but it still exists. You mustn’t forget that.” Neumann pointed out that in almost every terrorist plan that has been uncovered in recent years, the key clue has come from the US secret services. The Union interior expert Alexander Throm also criticized this: “This dependency represents a considerable security risk, which becomes even greater with the restrictive attitude of the traffic light towards our own services,” he told our editorial team with a view to the red-green-yellow federal government.
The Greens interior expert Konstantin von Notz said: “Once again it is clear that we must not lose sight of and underestimate the dangers posed by Islamist perpetrators in all current, very serious threats from the area of militant, well-connected right-wing extremism. “
How do ricin and cyanide work?
According to the RKI, 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.
+++ Also read: Background: The poisons ricin and cyanide are so dangerous +++
Four years ago, investigations in Cologne showed how dangerous ricin is: In a 15-storey 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 about 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 could 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. (with dpa)
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