Brazilian police have arrested 10 people suspected of planning terrorist acts during next month’s Rio Olympics, Brazil’s Justice Ministry said Thursday.
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The group was inspired by ISIS and mostly organized online, Justice Minister Alexandre de Moraes said.
The group of aspiring terrorists did not previously know each other and had used WhatsApp and other such applications to connect, Reuters reports.
Newton de Oliveira, a professor and security specialist at Mackenzie Presbyterian University in Rio de Janeiro, applauded authorities for detecting the group, saying recent world events raised worries about terrorism during the sporting event.
Moraes says there were no specific targets for attack. The upcoming games have been one of the most controversial Olympics with regards to the news and speculation leading up to its games.
“They were complete amateurs and ill-prepared”, Moraes added, AP reports. Not all members of the group had met each other, he said. The minister said that the leader of the group was based in the southern Brazilian city of Curitiba, with others spread in nine Brazilian states.
More than 80,000 police and soldiers will be on duty in Rio during the Olympics, which run from August 5 to 21.
The local Olympic organizing committee, Rio 2016, referred requests for comment to the federal government.
The justice minister said one of the suspects communicated with a shop in Paraguay via email in an alleged attempt to by an AK47 assault rifle, apparently the most concrete action taken towards a possible attack.
Still, Moraes said even disorganized groups should be taken seriously. He emphasized that no-one had been charged in the operation, codenamed Hashtag.
Acting President Michel Temer called an emergency cabinet meeting following the arrests.
Brazilian and USA officials have raised concern over the disappearance of former Guantanamo Bay detainee Jihad Diyab, after he had resettled in neighboring Uruguay, saying he could now be in Brazil.
Last week, Brazil deported a French-Algerian nuclear physicist convicted by a Paris court in 2012 for his involvement in helping to plot an attack in France in 2009 with an al Qaeda militant in Algeria. It was unclear whether those detained on Thursday have any relation with that group.
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The police intervention came after signs emerged the group was planning to use arms and guerrilla tactics to achieve its aim, Reuters reported.
