Germany, Iranian arrested for planning chemical attacks of Islamic origin

Counter-terrorism investigators have arrested a 32-year-old Iranian man in Castrop-Rauxel in northwestern Ruhr area, Germany, accused of planning an Islamic-motivated terrorist attack. The man is suspected of having obtained the toxins cyanide and ricin, the public prosecutor in Düsseldorf and the police in Recklinghausen and Münster said today. He was arrested along with another man. The men were lightly clad as they were led away, with only a jacket thrown over them against the winter chill, eyewitnesses said. They didn’t put up any resistance.
What is ricin
Ricin is highly toxic and is officially listed in Germany as a biological weapon. According to regional public broadcaster WDR, the two arrested men are brothers. Detectives moved in around midnight on Saturday to search the 32-year-old’s accommodation in Castrop-Rauxel. Many wore protective suits. A large area around the site was cordoned off while a large contingent of police, fire and emergency services officers were deployed to the site. The evidence was placed in blue bins and taken to a decontamination site set up by firefighters, according to the dpa. “The defendant is suspected of having prepared a serious act of violence dangerous for the state,” the investigators said. “The search is to find corresponding toxins and other evidence.” It has not yet been decided whether the 32-year-old will be brought before a magistrate. According to Bild, the Federal Criminal Police BKA kept tabs on the men for days, after receiving a warning from a ‘friendly intelligence agency.’ An earlier ricin case in Cologne four years ago, in which a Tunisian man and a German woman manufactured the poison and conducted a test blast, led to lengthy prison sentences. in that case, a foreign intelligence agency provided a tip after purchasing large quantities of the toxin.Authorities estimated at the time that a bomb filled with steel balls and ricin could have killed 200 people.