French police officers and French gendarmes stand next to a truck in a street of Nice on July 15, 2016, near the building where the man who drove a truck into a crowd watching a fireworks display, the day before, reportedly lived.
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None were known to intelligence services, and only Ramzi A., who was born in Nice, had a criminal record, for robbery and drug offenses.
Ramzi A, a Franco-Tunisian, has been charged with arms offences in relation to a terrorist enterprise. Molins later said that investigators believe Bouhlel obtained weapons used in the attack from “Ramzi A.” and from the two Albanian suspects, whom he described as a couple.
The arrested Albanians – Artan H. and Enkeledja Z. – are suspected of supplying weapons to the terrorist in Nice. Bouhlel’s phone showed searches and photos that indicated that he was planning an attack since 2015, he said.
On May 26 previous year, he took a photo of an article about the drug Captagon, which Molins said was “used by some jihadists responsible for attacks”.
In the aftermath of the Nice attack, the Islamic State declared Bouhlel a “soldier” of the militant group’s self-proclaimed caliphate, although French authorities said their investigation has not found any direct links between Bouhlel and the Islamic State. Also on the phone was an image of an article on a Tunisian man killed in January after he tried to attack a police station in Paris.
French prosecutor Francois Molins said a suspect had communicated with Bouhel more than 1,200 times in a year.
One suspect allegedly sent Bouhlel a Facebook message saying, “Load the truck with tons of iron and cut the brakes”.
On Thursday, the Liberation daily reported only one local police auto was barring entry to the pedestrianised seafront when Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel forced his lorry onto the Promenade des Anglais, mowing down families.
The man was identified as Mohamed Bouhlel, a Nice resident hailing from the Tunisian town of Msaken.
Paris prosecutor François Molins said authorities found “revealing” online searches and photos on the cellphone and laptop belonging to Nice killer Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel dating back to a year ago, including photos of the 2015 fireworks display.
At 10.27pm, minutes before the attack started, Lahouaiej-Bouhlel send his last text message, to Ramzi A. It read: “I wanted to tell you that the pistol that you got me yesterday it very good, so I want five from your girlfriend. I am happy they have brought soldiers of Allah to finish the job”.
Cazeneuve called the claims “undignified” and pointed the finger at Estrosi, hinting that he had orchestrated “daily attacks” on him even though he was also partly responsible for security in Nice.
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Information emerging from authorities and people who knew the Nice Bastille Day attacker suggests Bouhlel concealed his different worlds from each other, and may have been following Islamic State guidance to blend in and hide his radicalism while he plotted violence.
