Authorities say the group, based in multiple states across Brazil, had “moved beyond discussion to active planning”, NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro says.
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Moraes said they had all been “baptized” as Islamic State sympathizers online and none had actually traveled to Syria or Iraq, the group’s stronghold, or received any training. Moraes said there were no specific targets for an attack.
Members of the group allegedly had pledged allegiance to ISIS but had not had any direct contact with the militant group, Lulu reports from Rio. They did not know each other personally, the minister said. He said that authorities intervened when the group started planning actions including martial-arts training and the purchase of firearms. But during the games, the Brazilian government said 47,000 police officers and 38,000 soldiers will be on patrol in Rio – twice the size of the security force at the 2012 London Olympics. Justice Minister Alexandre de Moraes was due to hold a news conference on the operation.
He said members of the group had visited a weapons site in neighbouring Paraguay that sells AK-47 assault rifles, but there was no evidence they acquired any weapons. “Not everything a person conceives of in the virtual world is carried out in the real world”.
Interim President Michel Temer had called an emergency cabinet meeting following the arrests, the first under Brazil’s tough new anti-terrorism law approved this year.
Last week a physicist Adlene Hicheur with dual Algerian and French citizenship was deported from Brazil.
Stratfor’s Stewart said that, with no ability to project terrorist operatives into Brazil, IS could only seek to encourage grassroots groups.
Police acted because the group discussed the use of weapons and guerrilla tactics to potentially launch an attack during the Olympics, which begin August 5, Moraes said.
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The arrests come several days after the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors potential jihadist activity on the internet, reported a group in Brazil had pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed leader of ISIS, on Telegram. All are Brazilian, and one is a minor. Brazilian police have travelled to Nice to study the attacks there, officials said.
