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Brazil arrests people allegedly planning attack at Olympics
BRASÍLIA: Brazilian police have broken up an alleged terrorist group sympathetic to the Islamic State organisation that was planning to target the upcoming Olympic
BRASÍLIA: Brazilian police have broken up an alleged terrorist group sympathetic to the Islamic State organisation that was planning to target the upcoming Olympic Games, officials said. Ten people were arrested in a nationwide swoop codenamed Operation Hashtag, and two more were detained, the Justice Ministry said.
Justice Minister Alexandre de Moraes said the group of Brazilian nationals, communicating by messaging services WhatsApp and Telegram, discussed attacks and had begun preparations ahead of the Olympics, which start August 5 in Rio de Janeiro.
“There was an order between them to start training in martial arts and to (obtain) ammunition, weapons with which they could carry out an act,” de Moraes told a hastily called press conference in the capital Brasilia.
“This was in progress. One of them had got in contact with an underground weapons site in Paraguay, asking to buy an AK-47” assault rifle, he said.
However, de Moraes said the threat of terrorism at the Rio Olympics, the first ever held in South America, was “very small.”
He described the group as “an absolutely amateur cell” and “disorganised.”
Although some made a declaration of loyalty to the Islamic State organisation, there was no direct contact, de Moraes said. Not all members of the group had met each other, he said.
“Some of them made an oath of loyalty by Internet to the Islamic State, but there was no personal contact by this group with Islamic State by WhatsApp.”
