Police carry out anti-terror raids across country

Twenty-six foreigners suspected of links to international terrorism and aiding illegal immigration, are being investigated by Italian police, after raids carried out in several Italian cities. The raids were carried out in the northern cities of Vicenza, Venice, Padova, Brescia, Como, Cuneo, Trento, and Florence. Anti-terrorism and criminal investigators began probing fundamentalists attending the Via Dei Mille mosque in the northern Veneto region – led by an imam who is being investigated for terror links. Most of the 26 foreigners are stated to be of Algerian descent, and had already been involved in falsifying documents relating to jihadi groups, according to investigators.

This story calls to attention the possible presence of terror networks in various Italian regions and provinces, and the vast dispersal of those presumed to be connected to a similar vein of illegal activity, including suspected links to international terrorism. This article points to the vast geographical spread of such networks not just to international ties, but even in a Western European country that has to date, not been the target of a terrorist attempt.

April 2, 2009

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.0.3170573955