Argenteuil: a planned attack “an advanced stage” foiled by police – Le Point

Every Thursday evening, the police conducted searches in Argenteuil. They enabled the discovery of explosives. The searches were in response to the arrest of a man in the morning, suspected of involvement in a planned attack in France. The announcement was made in the evening by Bernard Cazeneuve: according to him, this “important inquiry” Thursday morning allowed “to thwart a planned attack in France, led to an advanced stage”

<. p> in the night, the search continued in a building evacuated its occupants in Argenteuil (Val-d’Oise). A small amount of explosives, the nature of which was not specified, was found at the home of the arrested man, according to a police source. The “clearance operations [were] going to allow police to conduct a search of the apartment, parking and common areas in optimal conditions,” explained Bernard Cazeneuve.

Survey for weeks

The arrested man, a French national, is “suspected of involvement in high level in this project [bombing]. It evolved into a terrorist network that planned to strike France, “said the Interior Minister in a press statement. He was sentenced in his absence to a European country not specified in a routing case of jihadists to Syria, according to a police source. The man had to be taken to the premises of ISB in Levallois-Perret to be heard in custody.

The minister did not elaborate on the project of attack, but ” at this stage, no tangible evidence linking the project to the attacks of Paris and Brussels, “was he argued. Of attacks by members of the same jihadist cell that those bereaved Paris on 13 November. The investigations are conducted under the authority of an anti-terrorist investigating judge, said the Paris prosecutor’s office told AFP. The survey, conducted from “several weeks”, “mobilized significant resources for physical and technical surveillance, as well as close and constant cooperation between European services,” according to Bernard Cazeneuve.

Six projects foiled two failed attempts

in addition to the Paris attacks, the deadliest known MAY hAVE France, the attacks, some aborted, have increased since the attacks against Charlie Hebdo and supermarket Hypercacher in January 2015. Like the unfinished projects: six projects attacks have been foiled since January 2015, besides the two failed attempts in Villejuif in April and on board the Thalys from Amsterdam to Paris in August, had said Bernard Cazeneuve early March.

Just before Christmas, a project of attack against the security forces had been foiled in the Orleans area and on March 20, a Franco-Moroccan radicalized, Youssef Ettaoujar, already condemned for trying to reach Syria and suspected of planning an attack, was indicted and jailed. Since the beginning of the year, 75 people “linked to terrorist activities” were arrested, 37 of them were under investigation, including 28 prisoners, recalled Bernard Cazeneuve.