In Castrop-Rauxel in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, anti-terror investigators have arrested a 32-year-old man who allegedly prepared an Islamic attack using toxic substances. The Iranian national is suspected of obtaining the toxins ricin and cyanide for the crime, authorities said Sunday night.
It was initially unclear how far the attack plans had progressed and whether there was already a concrete target for the attack. According to the German Robert Koch Institute, the highly toxic ricin is on the war weapons list under “biological weapons”. Cyanide is also highly toxic, even the smallest amounts are fatal to humans.
In the night from Sunday to Sunday, the living space of the 32-year-old in Castrop-Rauxel in the northern Ruhr area was searched by order of a judge. The site was cordoned off over a large area. Police, fire brigade and rescue workers were on site with a large contingent. Numerous emergency services wore protective suits, reports a dpa reporter.
“Prepared violent crime endangering the state”
“The suspect is suspected of preparing a serious act of violence that is dangerous to the state,” the detectives said. “The search serves to find the associated toxins and other evidence.” The 32-year-old and another person have been arrested. According to eyewitnesses, the men in underpants and jackets that had only been improvised were taken across the street to an emergency vehicle. Neither of them resisted. According to a report from the television station WDR, the two men are said to be brothers.
“The evidence has been secured and is being evaluated.” It has not yet been decided whether the 32-year-old will appear before a magistrate. The proceedings are being conducted by the Central Office for the Prosecution of Terrorism of North Rhine-Westphalia at the Düsseldorf Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Warning by “Friend Secret Service”
According to information from “Bild”, the German Federal Criminal Investigation Department has been investigating the Iranian for several days. A “friend of the secret service” is said to have warned the German security authorities of the danger of a chemical bomb attack.
Four years ago, studies 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 of online purchases of large quantities of castor seeds and gave a tip. Both were sentenced to long prison terms.
An expert report at the time showed that, purely mathematically, 13,500 people could have died from the amount of poison. With its planned dispersal by a steel-ball cluster bomb, it would have killed about 200 people.
Source: Krone
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