Iranians are said to have planned an Islamist attack with cyanide and ricin
32-year-old in North Rhine-Westphalia is said to have prepared an Islamist-motivated attack
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.
In Castrop-Rauxel, anti-terror investigators arrested a 32-year-old who is said to have helped prepare an Islamist attack. The Iranian national is said to have obtained the toxins cyanide and ricin for the crime. Ricin is considered a biological weapon of war.
AAnti-terror investigators have 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 early on Sunday morning.
According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the highly toxic ricin is included in the war weapons list under “biological weapons”. Cyanide is also highly toxic, even the smallest amounts are fatal to humans.
On the night of Sunday, 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.
Substances found during the search are examined on the premises of the fire brigade in Castrop-Rauxel
Source: dpa/Christoph Reichwein
Many emergency services wore protective suits. Evidence was brought in blue barrels to a decontamination point set up by the fire department, a dpa reporter reported.
According to a report by “Bild”, RKI employees were also on site as consultants because of the biological and chemical dangers for the emergency services. Several employees of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and a defuse commando were also deployed. The BKA did not want to comment on the operation and referred to the Attorney General’s Office.
“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 the corresponding toxins and other evidence.” The 32-year-old and one other person were taken into custody. According to a WDR report, the two men are said to be brothers.
It was initially unclear how far the attack plans had progressed and whether there was already a concrete target for the attack. The investigation was still ongoing in the morning.
A man is taken into custody by an officer from the special task force (SEK) wearing a protective mask
Source: dpa/Karsten Wickern
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.
“Evidence was secured and is being evaluated,” wrote the investigative authorities. 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 “Bild”, the BKA has been investigating the Iranian for several days. A “friend of the secret service” is said to have warned the German security authorities about the danger of an attack with a chemical bomb.
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.