The arrests “succeeded in averting a concrete and imminent danger, presented by international terrorism,’’ Hans-Peter Friedrich, Germany’s interior minister, said in a statement. They showed “Germany remains a target of international terrorists.’’
There was no indication that yesterday’s arrests had any link to a bomb attack in Morocco yesterday, which killed 15 people in a crowded tourist cafe.
Germany has so far escaped large-scale attacks by an Islamic terror organization, such as the Madrid train bombings of 2004 and the London transit attacks of 2005.
But Germany’s presence as part of the NATO coalition in Afghanistan has sparked anger, and at least two major plots have been thwarted or failed in Germany before they could be carried out.
The suspects had been under surveillance since November, when Germany increased security across the country in response to heightened terror threat warnings in Europe, but authorities did not have enough evidence to launch an official criminal investigation until April 15, Friedrich said.
Federal prosecutors said earlier they had ordered Germany’s federal police to arrest the trio, but gave no further information about the timing or location of the arrests.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss an ongoing investigation, said that a SWAT team picked up three people in a raid on suspicion they were planning an attack with explosives.
Duesseldorf, a city of 600,000, has one of the largest Moroccan immigrant communities in Germany.
