An 18-year-old Moroccan-German male has been arrested after planning to target Frankfurt with an automatic weapon attack, according to the German State Criminal Police Office.
According to police, the arrested man researched the construction of unconventional explosive and incendiary devices on the internet while planning for his attack. He also researched remote detonation mechanisms and obtained a long stabbing weapon, which he stored in his parents’ garage.
The suspect had been the target of an investigation since the summer of 2022 after a tip from a foreign intelligence service. He was arrested shortly before reaching the German-Austrian border on Wednesday last week on a motorway located near Passau in Bavaria.
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According to the German police, the suspect, who grew up in Germany but was born in Morocco, planned to use an automatic firearm in Frankfurt “to cause as many victims as possible.”
At the beginning of August, the suspect’s home was covertly searched, and investigators seized storage media that contained propaganda from the Islamic State and images of combat operations and executions involving the terror group.
The accused had initially not pursued his plans for an attack in Frankfurt “for fear of being discovered,” according to the investigation, and was unable to raise enough money for a gun. According to German authorities, the young man planned to travel by land to Iraq on Wednesday to join the Islamic State and “massacre” infidels right before police apprehended him at the border.
Since Germany’s left-wing government came to power, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has argued that “right-wing extremism” is the greatest threat facing Germany. However, data indicates that the vast majority of terrorism and suspected terrorism trials relate to Islamic extremism, despite Germany’s Muslim population making up a very small percentage of the population.
