Brazilian police have arrested 10 members of an “amateur” would-be terrorist group that expressed loyalty to the Islamic State organization and was preparing attacks ahead of the Olympics, officials said Thursday.
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The group, described as “absolutely amateur” by Justice Minister Alexandre Moraes, were all Brazilian citizens and in contact via messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram.
All of the people arrested were Brazilian and are not thought to be members of Islamic State, although officials said that they had tried to make contact with the group.
Security has become a major concern for the upcoming games, and while Brazil is not a part of the anti-ISIS coalition in the Middle East, many fear the nation could be a target because of the high profile of the event and the fact that many athletes from coalition countries will be in attendance.
The possibility of an attack is not so “far-fetched” even though Brazil has never been a target for terrorism, said Alex Kassirer, a counterterrorism analyst at Flashpoint, a New York-based intelligence group.
Brazilian Defense Minister, Raul Jungmann, said authorities had been monitoring the group for some time.
According to the minister, the group did not have direct contact with IS though some of its members had made “pro forma” declarations of allegiance to the militant Islamist group.
United States government sources have also mentioned that there has been an increase in terrorist chatter about the games, as they would be a highly symbolic target to strike, but nothing specific has been intercepted just yet. In a bid to learn more about their possible plans, the Justice Ministry is probing the suspects’ cell phones and computers. Two people are set to be be brought in for questioning, in addition to the 10 already detained.
Authorities have confirmed that the anti-terrorism raids, codenamed Operation Hashtag, were the most tangible incident to date potentially affecting the security of the games, which start in Rio de Janeiro on August 5.
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Federal Judge Marcos Josegrei da Silva, who approved the arrests from the southern city of Curitiba, said police had 30 days to analyse evidence.
