Brazil Arrests 10 Suspected of Plotting Attacks Timed for Olympics


Friday, 22 July 2016 - 8:28

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Brazil’s federal police arrested 10 Brazilians they said were linked to Islamic State and planning terrorist acts during the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Justice Minister Alexandre de Moraes, who oversees the federal police, described the suspects as poorly organized and said most of them knew each other only through online messaging. The target of their alleged attacks wasn’t clear, he said Thursday, adding, “It was an amateur cell without any planned preparation.”

The arrests come just two weeks ahead of the opening ceremonies amid questions over Brazil’s security preparations for the Games. Officials waited until just five weeks before the Games begin to award a contract for hiring and training thousands of private security workers to screen for weapons outside Olympic venues, and many of those jobs are going to people with no security experience and scant training.

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