Two More People Arrested in Operation Against Terrorism in Olympic Games
On Thursday, August 11, the Brazilian Federal Police arrested two people suspected of having connections with ISIS. The arrests occurred in São Paulo.
The Federal Police did not disclose the identities of the people arrested, but it is known that they are Brazilian and were in São Paulo. Over the Internet, they had sworn allegiance to ISIS and had contact with the twelve people arrested last month in the Hashtag operation.
In their conversations with the other people arrested, they had offered to carry out possible terrorist attacks during the Olympic Games currently held in Rio de Janeiro.
The Hashtag operation began last month and targeted a group of Brazilians connected to ISIS who were planning to carry out a terrorist attack during the Olympic Games.
Although there are no records of direct contact with ISIS terrorists, one of the suspects had even contacted a gun company to buy an AK-47 machine gun, but the operation fell through.
The suspects are members of a group that was being monitored by Brazil's interim administration as they had praised and shared content in support of the extremist group and terrorist attacks.
In Rio de Janeiro, a backpack was found in Arena Carioca 1, which is hosting the basketball matches, and the Federal Police's Anti-Bomb Group was called early Thursday night, August 11.
The belief that there might be a bomb in the suspected backpack made Federal agents explode the bag.
This was the first time that the Anti-Bomb group was called to act inside the Olympic Park. Up until August 7, state and federal police agents had received 47 calls reporting bomb threats in different points of Rio. All of them were fake.
Translated by THOMAS MUELLO