At the home of one of the suspects, an Albanian national, investigators found 11 telephones, cocaine and £2,165 in cash, according to a security official and the Paris prosecutor’s office. He also searched for information about the terror attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that left 49 dead, and the Paris suburb of Magnanville, where a police couple were killed last month.
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Flowers commemorating the spot where someone was killed in the the Promenade des Anglais in Nice.
Bouhlel’s sister has said he was treated for psychological issues for years before leaving Tunisia. Ramzi had previous convictions for drugs and petty crime.
While some who knew him said he was not religious, other witnesses said he had recently shown outward signs of becoming devout.
Prosecutors said the case was ongoing and have not confirmed whether Bouhlel was contacted by a n Algerian ISIS recruiter before he launched the attack, the Independent reports.
The truck had been used by the driver to travel two kilometres (1.3 miles) through the crowd, ploughing through barriers and then mowing down people in its path.
Although ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack on Saturday, authorities have yet to find any direct links between the truck driver and the terrorist group.
Late Sunday, authorities announced they had detained the man believed to be the recipient of that text message.
The message was dated three days after the January 2015 massacre at Charlie Hebdo, the satirical publication in Paris, and referred to the worldwide phrase of solidarity for the victims “I’m Charlie”.
Who was the Nice attacker?
Some of Nice’s beachside restaurants were reopening for business, and the final section of the road was set to reopen to traffic following three days of official mourning.
“I welcome the interior minister’s decision to order an inquiry of the Nice attack by the police of police”, tweeted Christian Estrosi, the head of the regional government in the southeast Riviera coast area who has led the criticism.
However, on Monday French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that there was no evidence that Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was in contact with extremist networks.
A man holds a French flag as people gather to observe a minute of silence on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice on July 18, 2016, in tribute to victims of the deadly Nice attack on Bastille Day.
Former president Nicolas Sarkozy has accused the government of complacency and called for the expulsion of foreign nationals with known links with radical Islam.
A psychiatrist who treated him more than a decade ago told Reuters on Sunday that he had been aggressive towards his parents and had body image problems.
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“There’s no room for polemics, there’s only room for transparency”, he said. “The necessary, serious preparations had been made for the July 14 festivities”.
